picrORejoy e j^lksv^ 




• WOODAVMr/" 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



ii^ap.. ©optjrijI^J ;f 0. 

Shelf .^W.El'i 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




THE ROUTE TO ALASKA 



PICTURESQUE ALASKA 



A JOURNAL OF A TOUR AMONG THE 

MOUNTAINS, SEAS AND ISLANDS 

OF THE NORTHWEST, FROM 

SAN FRANCISCO TO 

SITKA 



^ 



BY / 

ABBY JOHNSON ^^OODMAN 







1 


'V^' -^ n^- 




BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 




X 



Copyright, 1889, 
By ABBY JOHNSON WOODMAN. 

All rights reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge : 
Electrotyped and Primed by H. O. Houghton & Co, 






INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



The value and importance of the acqui- 
sition of Alaska, through the efforts of 
Secretary Seward and Senator Sumner, 
are now beginning to be realized and ap- 
preciated. Apart, however, from material 
benefits which must accrue to the country, 
from its vast resources of mines, lumber, 
and fisheries, the grandeur and picturesque- 
ness of its scenery are attracting the at- 
tention of tourists, and the tide of sum- 
mer travel must soon set strongly in that 
direction. 

This little volume, written, with no 
thought of publicity, at car-windows and 
from the decks of steamboats, in sight of 
the objects described, has something of 
the freshness and vividness of reality, like 
a chain of photographic impressions from 



IV INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

Mount Shasta to Mount Elias. Its un- 
studied but truthful pictures may be of 
interest to those who have seen the won- 
derful region of mountains, glaciers, and 
inland seas, and to those who are hoping 
or expecting to visit it, and to the larger 
number who are only able to travel by 
proxy, and see through the eyes of others. 

JOHN G. WHITTIER. 
Danvers, February i8, 1889. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Mount Shasta and the Pass of Siski- 
you 9 

II. Mount Hood, Mount Tacoma, and Puget 

Sound 44 

III. Victoria and Nanaimo, B. C, to Fort 

Tongas, Alaska 68 

IV. From Dixon's Entrance to Juneau . 107 
V. Sitka, Juneau, and Douglas Island . 161 

VI. Return to Tacoma 185 

VII. Conclusion . . . ' . . . .209 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGB 

Map of Alaska Route . . Facing Title. 

Totem Poles in 

Indian Graves, Fort Wrangell . . . 139 

Juneau 145 

Floating Ice, Takou Inlet .... 149 

MuiR Glacier 157 

Sitka 165 



Note. The above illustrations are from photographs 
taken by W. H. Partridge, of Boston. 



PICTURESQUE ALASKA 



I. 

MOUNT SHASTA AND THE PASS OF SISKIYOU. 

April 5, 1888. We started from San 
Francisco at 3.30 p. m., and crossed the 
ferry to Oakland, where we joined a party of 
tourists going to Oregon. As we followed 
the shore of the beautiful Bay of San Fran- 
cisco, northward to San Pablo, and thence 
bending eastward toward Port Costa, we 
looked out over the brown water to the 
pretty islands, the boats, ships, and steam- 
ers, some incoming from Portland and 
other northern cities, and others outward 
bound for San Diego and intervening ports. 
We caught just a glimpse of the '' Golden 
Gate," and saw the white walls of pretty 
villas and towns on the farther shore ; 
realizing in one comprehensive view some- 



lO PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

thing of the magnitude and exceptional 
beauty of that finest of all harbors on the 
Pacific coast. 

At Port Costa our train was conveyed 
on an immense ferry-boat across the Sac- 
ramento River, at its entrance into the 
Bay at Benicia, the naval station of San 
Francisco. Here the river mingles its 
thick brown waters with the clear tides of 
the ocean, after passing through Suisun 
Bay, a broad shallow, with a marshy bot- 
tom, where the thick copper-colored water 
idly laps upon a muddy beach. 

Great beds of last year's rushes stand 
bristling and rustling in the breeze, stub- 
bornly waiting for a new growth to sup- 
plant and crowd them into the slime be- 
low. As we advance up the valley of the 
Sacramento, it presents to our eyes a plain 
of verdure, broken now and then by a 
small pool, in which wild ducks are floating 
like so many lilies, as, at first sight, we 
thought they were. Great flocks of black- 
birds rise from the fields of grain and sweep 
around like cloud shadows, softly floating 
down and fading from our sight, as they 
lose themselves again and again in the 
rich verdure. 



MOUNT SHASTA. 1 1 

Scenes shift as we go on, like the views 
in a vast panorama. The great, level val- 
ley stretches far out toward the east, as 
our route takes us farther from the river ; 
and over it we see white sails gleaming 
against the sky, looking as if they were 
navigating the green fields which lie be- 
tween, rather than the muddy waters of 
the Sacramento River beyond. 

Now, the wheat fields . give place to 
brown marsh lands, upon which many 
herds of cattle and horses are seen. I 
counted thirty horses in one small group, 
and soon passed another, at least four 
times as large. Droves of black pigs are 
seen at intervals, wallowing and fattening 
in grass as high as their shoulders. There 
are no signs of feeding or care for them, 
any more than for the cattle and horses. 

We arrive at Suisun at six o'clock p. m. 
It seems a smart little town, but sits upon 
a dead level of marsh land, and must be a 
sufferer from occasional inundations of the 
Sacramento Valley. Soon after leaving 
Suisun, we find the grain fields are being 
ploughed ; buttercups are seen, and cultiva- 
tion is going on everywhere about us. But 
few trees are grown here. As I look about 



12 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

upon either side of our way, I can see but 
three groups ; these are all eucalyptus 
trees, which cluster about and shade the 
farmhouses. 

Following the grain fields, comes an- 
other ranch, devoted mainly to cattle and 
sheep. The different herds and flocks are 
divided by rail fences. Ranch follows 
ranch upon all sides, each with its gener- 
ous group of farm-buildings, all painted 
white, and shaded by tall eucalyptus trees. 
They stand at regular distances from each 
other, and are very picturesque in the pre- 
vailing greenness of this portion of the 
valley. 

Next comes the town of Elmira, which 
I note as a " goaty place," from the fact 
that these are the first goats I have seen 
in Northern California. A white church 
spire rises above the group of eucalyptus 
trees, and an immense windmill stares us 
in the face as we pass it, like a rising sun 
in a child's picture book. Elmira is as 
yet a town of but small importance. 

Again a long stretch of distance, a low 
level of vivid green, with groups of home- 
steads, ranches enclosed by rail fences, 
wherein horses, cows, and black pigs roam 



MOUNT SHASTA. 13 

at will, make up this by no means unpleas- 
ing section of the panorama, and then an- 
other change of scene. A vineyard, with 
grape-leaves as large as the palm of my 
hand, showing the Sacramento Valley to be 
the banner section, as far as warmth and 
early vegetation is concerned, of northern 
California. 

Four teams of six horses each are next 
seen, breaking the sods of a large area for 
grain. A team upon each of the four 
sides has enclosed a large green space by 
a wide strip of broken ground, and upon 
this space of many acres are corralled by 
the rich brown earth a beautiful herd of 
forty or fifty cows, red, black, white, and 
speckled, all feeding upon the rank green 
grass as if intent upon saving it from the 
ploughshare. West of us is a long line of 
hills, which rise higher above the level of 
the valley as they extend northward, and 
terminate in the geyser region, or rather 
merge into the mountains about the gey- 
sers, dividing this from Napa and other 
small valleys round about it. In every 
other direction the valley meets the level 
horizon without a single elevation to break 
the perfect line, fertile and beautiful. 



14 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

We reach Dixon just as the sun appears 
to rest for an instant upon a mountain 
level, and then to drop below it in a flood 
of its own golden light. Dixon is a pretty 
place of low frame houses, with a sprink- 
ling of enterprising brick blocks, enough 
to give this valley town a tone of smart- 
ness. We stop but a few minutes for a 
passing train and then pass on. Again are 
repeated the broad fields of wheat and 
barley, the detached groups of v^^hite farm- 
houses, some large and tasteful, the beau- 
tiful herds of speckled cattle, the ebony 
pigs and animated horses galloping over 
the wide spaces, — and all included in one 
grand comprehensive view as I turn my 
eyes over the broad reaches of the valley. 

Now come the umber tints of the broken 
ground, the sear stubble of last year's 
grain fields, half-eaten ricks of dry grass, 
and the green bronze hues of the sprout- 
ing barley fields, all in quick and pleasing 
succession. No prairie, in what was once 
our W^est, ever equalled in thrift and love- 
liness the beautiful valleys of California. 

Passing on between another great herd 
of speckled cattle upon one side, and a 
multitude of horses, mingled with calves 



MOUNT SHASTA. 1 5 

of all ages, from six months to two years, 
upon the other, we next arrive at a decided 
change in the scenes about us. 

We reached Davisville after crossing a 
stream of considerable size flowing toward 
the Sacramento River. The town is small ; 
one village church in the midst of a few 
small houses is all it can boast of architec- 
ture; it sits in the midst of a large tract of 
the valley given to the cultivation of fruit. 
Large vineyards, interspersed with or- 
chards of various fruits, all pink and white 
with bloom, brighten and gladden us like 
a rosy dawn in the silver twilight of the 
morning. 

After leaving the vineyards and orchard 
lands of Davisville, the mountains which 
had bounded our vision on the west dis- 
appeared, and the low level everywhere 
began to grow marshy. Buttercups cov- 
ered large areas like a "cloth of gold," and 
shallow pools of water grew in size reflect- 
ing the soft hues of the twilight, while the 
small tufts and patches of green which 
dotted their surfaces looked like jewels 
in their brilliant setting. We arrived at 
the city of Sacramento in the evening, and 
consequently saw but little of its surround- 



1 6 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

ings. We had passed over ninety - two 
miles of our journey to Oregon by day- 
light. During the following night we trav- 
elled one hundred and seventy-two miles 
farther, and reached the head of the lower 
Sacramento Valley at the town of Redding 
early on the morning of April 6th. 

I saw glimpses of our northward jour- 
ney all through the night. We passed over 
level spaces and made occasional stops at 
towns along our route, but I could see 
nothing of the aspect of the country. 

We left the green levels behind us at 
Redding, and entered upon a region of rug- 
ged and uncultivated nature. I looked 
from my window, and for a moment im- 
agined myself travelling among the hills 
of New Hampshire, so like to them was the 
scene about us. We soon came once more 
to the Sacramento River. Not the brown, 
muddy Sacramento of the previous day, 
but a river whose water is white and pure 
as crystal, tinted like Niagara, a full, swift 
stream, and feathered from quill to tip like 
the full, fluff plume of an ostrich. 

We began to ascend its wild and ro- 
mantic canon at about six in the morning, 
and the beautiful river for more than three 



MOUNT SHASTA. 17 

hours presented to our delighted admira- 
tion such a series of lovely scenes as it is 
seldom one's good fortune to behold. 

They followed so close, each complete in 
itself, alike and yet so distinctly different, 
it was hard to distinguish one as more 
delightfully charming than another. With 
but two or three exceptions, where for a 
few rods the river took a level sweep 
around some projecting spur of the hills, 
or obstructing boulder in its course, it was 
a swift succession of sparkling rapids and 
foamy white cascades, from the point 
where we entered its ravine at Middle 
Creek to where our road turned from it to 
ascend the Big Bend, which trails its wind- 
ing way up a height of 530 feet to the sta- 
tion of McLoud. 

I thought, when we entered the canon 
of the Sacramento in the early morning, 
that I would make a note of every lovely 
scene presented in our progress, and so 
continue my journal of our journey as I 
began it on leaving San Francisco. For 
the first half hour there seemed to be lack- 
ing a bit of color, perhaps an autumn tint, 
to perfect the loveliness of the wild beauty 
of the scenery, and I pictured the Poca- 



1 8 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

hontas of my imagination, with her painted 
bow and quiver, and her wampum-fringed 
garments of many hues, standing airily 
poised upon this jutting point, or with 
moccasined feet leaping over the white 
cascade from yonder green but moss-grown 
pine, which bridged the rushing stream. 

It was not long, however, before I came 
to feel and know that this is no sylvan 
brook to pose and " laugh for our delight," 
but rather that the wonderful skill and 
energy of man had opened our way amid 
these wild and sublime solitudes of Nature, 
and disclosed to our gaze one of her great 
throbbing arteries, the fountain of whose 
bounding and exhaustless flow was in the 
mighty heart of Shasta ; that this bound- 
ing and resistless flow was for the blessing 
of the happy sunlit valleys which surround 
his feet, causing them to bring forth bud 
and bloom and verdure and abundant 
fruitage. 

At 8.30 in the morning we passed the 
Lower Soda Springs. There is one large 
hotel and several cottages for the conven- 
ience of those who come for the benefit to 
be derived from drinking the waters. A 
few rods farther on, and I caught a distant 



MOUNT SHASTA. 1 9 

flitting sight of Shasta, and I clapped my 
hands and called out, "Shasta! Shasta!" 
that all might share in my delight. The 
town of Dunmuir stands upon a small flat 
area, and has several quite extensive brick 
repair shops belonging to the California 
and Oregon Railroad, with a dozen or per- 
haps more small dwellings clustered about, 
a grocery, a hotel, and the "Star" printing- 
office, — quite a good show for a mountain 
town 2271 feet above the level of San 
Francisco, remote from all centres of en- 
terprise, connected only with the outside 
world by the railroad and an old discon- 
tinued stage route. 

Still the cascades swept down in dancing 
curves and showers of white foam, and still 
we toiled on, close upon the way whence 
they came. 

At Dunmuir we exchanged our engine 
for two that were both larger and better 
equipped for the labor which was before 
them. Our road is cut into the sides of 
banks and hills and mountains, all the way, 
as close to the edge of the stream as it is 
possible to go, and sometimes overhanging 
it upon bridge and trestle. 

I turned for a backward look and saw 



20 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

the river tumbling and racing down a direct 
course of two or three hundred rods, be- 
tween tall dark firs and pines, a narrow 
strip of the blue sky above, and the water 
white and full of life-like motion below, 
flashing and sparkling in the yellow sun- 
light, which darted down in flecks and 
streamers through the solemn shadows of 
the trees. It was a scene of beauty, wild 
and fascinating, which it will long be a de- 
light to us to recall ; so satisfying to our 
anticipations of what this journey would re- 
veal to us that we both at once exclaimed, 
" Now I wish that G. and M. and P. were 
with us to share and enjoy this wonderful 
and delightful journey." 

We came immediately after to where the 
river seemed to pause in its wild course, at 
the foot of a great moss-covered boulder, 
from behind which it swept in one strong, 
graceful curve, its color bright as liquid 
emerald. Rounding the corresponding 
curve along the bank, we came full upon 
Mossbrae Falls. 

Unnumbered small streams of ice-cold 
water, from the frozen caverns of Mount 
Shasta, burst at once from cushions of 
deep green moss, the growth of ages, which 



MOUNT SHASTA. 2t 

lay piled upon the top of a high precipice 
overhanging a lovely pool below. They 
came tumbling and foaming down its moss- 
grown side with sylvan glee and frantic 
leaps ; now white as snow, and when the 
sunlight caught and seemed to hold it in a 
golden net, it flashed and shone as irides- 
cent as the bow of heaven. Some shot 
down in gauzy veils, and some, like minia- 
ture Niagaras, poured down their little vol- 
umes to the pool and rose in bubbling haste 
to join the stream below. 

The music of all these sparkling rills 
was like the chiming of distant bells. Why 
were they not sweet songs of joy .'* A wild 
rejoicing of the long imprisoned waters for 
their advent to the light of day, the soft 
airs of heaven, the freshness and beauty of 
earth, the strength of the resistless river, 
and the boundless life of the mighty ocean, 
— a lovelier scene can hardly be imagined. 
Were I an artist, I would never again touch 
paint to canvas until I could stand by Moss- 
brae Falls. Another bend of the river, and 
we cross it upon a fine arched bridge of 
stone, when our porter points to a high cliff 
of stone and gravel on our right, and gravely 
tells us, there lies our way. 



22 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

The river winds about so abruptly here, 
forming two right angles between its rocky- 
walls, in the distance of not more than a 
hundred feet, that I saw no way of egress 
from the labyrinth in which we seemed to 
be. Cliffs to the right and left, and high 
walls in front of and behind us, seemed 
to shut us completely in from outward 
space. Still the river kept us company, 
and where that went, thence we had come, 
and whence that came, there we must find 
our way. 

We had passed through many spurs of 
the mountains, which had barred our pro- 
gress, by tunnels ; some short, and some 
quite long ; always to be welcomed from 
their darkness by the glad surprise of the 
river, which seemed to flow the swifter for 
our coming. We crossed and recrossed it 
eighteen times upon picturesque bridges 
and trestles, some arched, some of stone, 
and some of timbers, rustic and airy, as the 
places might require. We were near to its 
icy sources and its volume of water was 
sensibly diminished, but the picturesque- 
ness was a constantly increasing character- 
istic from the m.oment when we entered 
the mountain canon until we were obliged 



MOUNT SHASTA. 23 

to turn from its ever-varying and fascinat- 
ing course. 

Looking up the ravine as we left the 
river upon our left, we caught glimpses of 
the wild rocky places where the water 
springs to light from hidden fountains ; 
we realized that we were peeping into the 
primeval solitudes of nature. Yet not a 
solitude, but the wild and lovely haunt of 
all wild creatures which roam and rejoice 
in the crags and fastnesses of these lofty 
pyramids of Nature ; haunts, like Caledo- 
nia's, 

" Stern and wild, 
Fit nurse for a poetic child." 

Making a sharp turn in our course, we 
entered among the pine forests and began 
our ascent to McLoud. Still we were fol- 
lowing the course of the river, but upon 
a rising track and with its current. We 
were going toward the south, but soon 
made another complete tack to the north, 
and again ran parallel with and against 
the flow of the river, having "boxed" both 
it and the compass, in passing over the 
Big Bend of the railway. Looking down 
upon our track, we saw the river far below 
where we had crossed and recrossed it so 



24 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

many times in its sinuous course, and, upon 
a terrace intervening between it and our 
present position, the long stretch of rail 
parallel to it and us, which marked the 
passage of our first ascent. Making our 
third tack upon the mountain, we took a 
southeasterly course and came upon a level 
area, at an altitude of 3400 feet, called 
Strawberry Valley. Here was the town or 
station of McLoud. Strawberry Valley is 
a cleared area of many acres — taking its 
name from the abundance of wild strawber- 
ries which in their season are found there. 
McLoud is a lumbermen's settlement, as 
the great quantities of sawed lumber and 
wood attest. There were fifteen or twenty 
small, box-like houses, shanties, and huts, 
the abodes of lumbermen. None were in 
camp, however, as for some reason busi- 
ness seemed suspended and the camp de- 
serted. From Strawberry Valley we still 
ascended, catching now and then a sight 
of great Shasta, which was so fleeting and 
phantom-like that we could hardly restrain 
our impatience until we should come in full 
view of its regal majesty. 

Crossing a very high and fragile-looking 
trestle, which bridged a deep gulch between 



MOUNT SHASTA. 25 

two heights, we came to a point where a 
momentary view of Shasta's southern side 
was presented to our unobstructed sight. 
Upon our left was a long range of snowy 
mountains rising 9000 feet above the sea, 
known as Scott Mountains. Farther back 
toward the southwest were the strangely 
beautiful Castle Rocks. We saw these 
upon our left when we passed the Lower 
Soda Springs ; at the same time we got our 
first sight of Mount Shasta, and the greater 
wonder eclipsed the lesser. 

Castle Rocks are a weird and fantastic 
combination of peaks, turrets, pinnacles, 
and towers, whose black and jagged sur- 
faces assume all sorts of fantastic shapes, 
and give play to fancies of the wildest 
imaginings. There is little chance for won- 
der that the Indians peopled these inacces- 
sible fastnesses with mountain sprites and 
dire hobgoblins. 

Across the airy trestle, and up the farther 
height, we came upon a broad and fertile 
plateau, over which we sped between lofty 
pines and firs, intently watching for every 
glimpse that came to us of the great White 
Shasta. Here we came to Acme, a little 
town upon the top of the mountain up which 



26 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

we had been winding our way for more 
than an hour. We found at Acme several 
large sawmills in active operation, many 
very good board houses, and immense quan- 
tities of lumber of all descriptions piled 
promiscuously about on every side, await- 
ing shipment to southern ports for the 
building up of future cities. 

Passing on and out from the town of the 
lumbermen, we arrived at Sissons, at 10.30 
A. M., and left our train for breakfast at the 
station. Sissons is the town, the hotel, 
and the station ^ from which the ascent of 
Shasta is made. 

And here Mount Shasta stood in solemn 
majesty before us, not more than twelve 
miles distant. But not the Shasta I had 
longed so much to see. This was Mount 
Shasta with broad shoulders, like great 
white wings extending far out upon either 
side. It looks high and massive and 
grand, but not the Mount Shasta before 
whose sublime majesty I had expected to 
bow down in reverence, tremulous with 
awe and admiration. 

At the left of the hotel, and apparently 
quite near to it, rises Muir Mountain, or 

^ All in one and beneath one broad roof. 



MOUNT SHASTA. 2/ 

Black Butte, as the natives call it, 6500 
feet above the sea-level, and 3000 feet 
above Strawberry Valley. It is a reddish- 
brown volcanic mountain, very peaked and 
extremely interesting in its appearance. 
It rises immediately from the level of the 
valley, and looks, as it really is, of much 
more recent birth than other mountains 
round about it. It is said that " Shasta 
was cold and dead many an age before the 
fires in Muir Mountain were kindled." It 
is to all appearances utterly naked, not a 
sign of vegetable growth exists upon it, 
from base to topmost peak. 

Castle Mountains, a continuation of 
Castle Rocks, are to the west of Sissons 
and in full view, a long, high chain of 
snowy peaks and pinnacles. Near them 
rises the lofty triple summit of Trinity 
Mountain. 

The situation of Sissons is peculiarly in- 
teresting to us for its affording us, in the 
hour which we spent after breakfast in 
walking up and down the wide and long 
plank walk before the hotel, an opportunity 
of observing its grand and magnificent 
mountain scenery, — gigantic Shasta in 
front of us, and Muir, Scott, Castle, and 
Trinity standing so near behind us. 



28 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

As we left Sissons we had Mount Shasta 
on our right and all the time in full view. 
We marked with wonder and admiration its 
variety of shapes, as revealed by our pro- 
gress. When just south of it, the moun- 
tain stands like a massive pyramid with a 
sharp spur upon its left ; a little beyond, 
and it is winged, as we saw it at Sissons ; 
then with clustered peaks ; soon the peaks 
are seen in line, and the summit is a per- 
fect level, cutting the blue sky Hke a 
mighty crystal wedge. 

We arrive at Edgewood, situated in 
Shasta Valley, seventeen miles from Sis- 
sons and four hundred feet lower, where 
are a few two-story frame buildings and a 
small church. Fields are cleared and cul- 
tivated, but the land is very stony. Where 
the stones lie undisturbed in a natural 
state, the ground is literally covered with 
them. They are all small, none of them 
more than a foot in diameter, and most of 
them very much smaller. They lie entirely 
free upon the surface of the soil, which is 
good, and look as if they had fallen in a 
recent shower, as hail-stones lie thick and 
loose after a sudden storm. The space 
covered by these stones is circumscribed, 



MOUNT SHASTA. 29 

neither far nor wide ; they are volcanic, 
and some one said they had lain where we 
saw them ever since the Black Butte burst 
asunder the bonds of Earth and arose to 
take his place among her mighty giants. 

Next appeared beside our route an old- 
fashioned one -story cottage, unpainted, 
save by storm and wind, with shed, barn, 
and cow yards, just like those we often see 
nestled snugly among the hills of Vermont 
and New Hampshire. Two or three acres 
of cultivated land about it, with all of Shasta 
Valley for pasturage, make a homestead in 
this far northwest which reminds us for- 
cibly of the rural homes among our New 
England hills. Still farther on in the val- 
ley we came to a place on our way where 
Mount Shasta, the Shasta of our imagina- 
tion, that which we have all the while been 
hoping to see, stood full before us. Its 
awful height, its immaculate whiteness, its 
strength and immeasurable magnitude, and 
the broad, far stretch of its massive base, 
— all impressed me with a power equalled 
only by the awful presence of El Capitan. 

That Mount Shasta is sublime and ma- 
jestic, far above all others that I have seen 
in California, I feel and know. What may 



30 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

be the power of the lofty mountains of this 
far northwest to supplant Shasta as the 
mightiest of all, I cannot tell. I wish I 
could express how it appears to me. It 
looks so pure, so free, so silent, — so of the 
world and yet so far above it. The shadows 
lying upon the nearer mountains and hills 
are very beautiful, but all things pale and 
sink in the contemplation of incomparable 
Mount Shasta. 

Still descending gradually, we left the 
fertile slopes and pasture lands of Shasta 
Valley and came to a large, full river, the 
second in size in California. Klamath 
River flows down from Klamath Lakes, and 
takes in its course the waters of three 
other rivers, which bear the names of the 
mountains from whence they flow, Shasta, 
Scott, and Trinity. 

We crossed the Klamath near the town 
of Hornbook, and crossing also the narrow 
Klamath valley at right angles, we could 
see but little of it until we began our ascent 
upon the northern side. I then looked 
down the long stretch of the river vale and 
saw the broad Klamath flowing placidly 
down between the green sides of the valley, 
which almost seemed the river's banks, so 



MOUNT SHASTA. 3 1 

near they approached it upon either side. 
So great was the contrast between the 
Klamath, broad and beautiful as it was, 
and the wild and exciting dash of the Sac- 
ramento, that it seemed like giving milk 
for wine, and I could not "enthuse" over 
it after drinking so freely of the wine of 
admiration from the streams which flow 
from the vaulted caverns that underlie the 
icy domes of Mount Shasta. 

The ascent of Siskiyou Mountain lay 
before us. We toiled slowly up the steep 
grade, our engines panting like living crea- 
tures under the strain of our heavy train. 
We still could see Mount Shasta's tower- 
ing height, the snowy pinnacles of Castle 
Mountains, and the shining spires of Trin- 
ity, while east of us and high above loomed 
the strange volcanic pillar known as Pilot 
Rock. It stands like an immense granite 
tower, 6000 feet in height, upon the bound- 
ary line between California and Oregon ; 
and it looks down from either side of the 
Cascade Range upon wondrous scenes of 
mountains, vales, and rivers. Its promi- 
nence made it one of the most valuable 
watch-towers during our Indian wars in the 
early settlement of Oregon and California. 



32 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

Coles is the last town upon our route in 
California. 

The fir-trees of Oregon have been seen 
mingled with the pines all along the Shasta 
region. At Coles they became quite con- 
spicuous. They are tall and stately trees, 
not spreading in their growth, but compact 
and shapely, with bark the color of that of 
the Scotch pine. The grade is still more 
steep and our progress is more labored as 
we slowly move up between deep cuts of 
gravel and flinty stone. We are following 
in the same rough pathway which General 
Fremont marked through this wild country 
of trackless forests before the days of civil 
engineering. It is very interesting to think 
of him and his toilsome marches over these 
wild mountains and through these great 
hidden valleys, while we are reposing com- 
fortably in our palace cars and taking our 
"ease in our own hired houses." This 
journey so full of peril to him, which he 
travelled in weakness and with fear of hos- 
tile Indian, so little time ago, is to-day for 
us filled with delight, security, and comfort. 

iFor a novelty, we reached a point not 
^ ong after lunch where the way, though 
■ wild, was uninteresting ; at least there was 



THE PASS OF SISKIYOU. 33 

nothing to excite our wonder or admiration. 
I observed a well-travelled highway, leading 
somewhere, — I did, however, '' v^onder " 
where it led. We are never in all this 
broad land beyond the region of some sign 
of civilization. The highway, I am told, 
was the old stage road to Oregon before 
the completion of the railroad over the Sis- 
kiyou mountains. 

This Oregon and California Railroad is 
a continued surprise to us. Such feats of 
engineering as have been accomplished are 
really marvellous. The old stage road over 
Siskiyou measured the distance of ten 
miles. The railroad makes the passage of 
the mountain, connecting the termini of 
the two roads, by a series of tacks and 
zigzags which measure eighteen miles in 
its ascent and descent of steep mountain 
grades. Again and for the last time we 
see gigantic Shasta. It towers far above 
all intervening objects, an immense billow 
of white in the southern sky. 

One more broad curve and we have at- 
tained the summit of Siskiyou. I see the 
two powerful engines belching great clouds 
of smoke and marching sturdily upward, 
subduing height and distance with their 



34 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

determined strokes. I look backward and 
mark the line of our road as it lies plainly 
visible in every part below us. The whole 
side of the mountain is terraced by five long 
lines of track, doubling back and forth and 
winding upward to its top. 

We crossed a very high trestle over a 
deep and dark gulf, and soon entered a 
tunnel under the peak of Siskiyou Mount, 
3300 feet long. From the darkness of the 
mountain, which was so still and solemn 
as to oppress us, we slowly came into the 
light of the outer world, glad to be disen- 
tombed. We stopped at Siskiyou at an 
elevation of 4135 feet. The fir-trees all 
about the station are very tall ; many of 
them have been blasted by fire, and lum- 
bermen have done their part to add to the 
extravagant waste of these stately forests. 
The town consists of a small station, a 
freight-house, one small dwelling, and a 
woodpile. There is also another frame 
building which may be mansion or work- 
shop. All are new and well painted. Evi- 
dently the town belongs to the railroad 
corporation. 

From Siskiyou, we begin our winding 
descent on the northern side of the moun- 



THE PASS OF SISKIYOU. 35 

tain. We pass between a heavy growth of 
the Oregon firs, tall, light, and graceful in 
their tapering height, straight as an Indian 
arrow but seared and blackened by forest 
fires. We double on our track, and look- 
ing southward far down in the deep valley 
we behold the very road upon which we 
came before we began our zigzag ascent 
of the mountain. 

We turn northward again, and now see 
another winding road, far down upon the 
opposite side of Siskiyou. It weaves back 
and forth, lower and lower, — each terrace 
cut by a deep wood-grown gulch, which 
reaches from the top of the mountain 
straight down to its base, in the beautiful 
valley below. 

Every terrace has its airy, web-like tres- 
tle, one below another, spanning the fear- 
ful gulch beneath. These structures look 
strangely frail and insecure, as we realize 
that over them all our train must pass 
before we reach the great basin-like val- 
ley which lies so far below us. We pro- 
ceeded more slowly in our descent, as the 
danger of accidents is greater than in the 
ascent. 

The valley of Rogue River lies below us 



36 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

like a great amphitheatre of woodland, vale, 
and river. The view of it from the top of 
the mountain was extremely beautiful. 
High mountains rose all around it, lifting 
their varying shapes against the sky ; 
many of them are white with snow ; some 
peaked and pinnacled, and some like castle 
walls, with domes and turrets. Within 
these lay the softer lines of foot-hills, 
which enclosed the valley like the ornate 
rim of the deep and lovely basin. Our 
point of observation was on a level with 
the snow line on the mountains opposite, 
which are a part of the great Cascade range 
of Oregon. 

As we descended, now east then west, 
over trestles and through tunnels, the great 
basin of the valley became broken into hills 
and depressions, forming an undulating 
surface over all the area, which had looked 
as level and soft as a shaven lawn ; and the 
tall pine and fir trees, which had looked to 
us like bristling blades of grass, began to 
assume their proper stature, rising two and 
three hundred feet above the soil which 
nourished them. 

Coming nearer to the level of the valley, 
our train halted at a water tank. We have 



THE PASS OF SISKIYOU. 37 

a sense of relief that the fearful tension 
upon our nerves is almost over for the day, 
and a feeHng of thankfulness and grateful 
appreciation toward our two faithful en- 
gines comes into my heart, which I almost 
long in some occult way to convey to them. 
They have proved so responsive to com- 
mand, so worthy of trust and confidence^ 
that they almost seem to be sentient crea- 
tures. I take a real pleasure in seeing 
them filled to overflowing with the pure 
sweet water which flows so musically down 
in little rills and miniature cascades from 
the mountain spring above us. 

A little below the fountain comes a wide 
area of several acres, where the waste 
stones and gravel of the excavated ledges 
and tunnels on the road above have been 
dumped by the laborers into an ugly gulch. 
On this area is Chinatown. The tents of 
the Chinamen, without whom these feats 
of engineering would never have been real- 
ized, stand close and thick, like the wig- 
wams of an Indian village. Behind them, 
on the edge of their acres, overlooking the 
ravine, are all the various implements of 
their labor, save the broken and dismantled 
ones, of all descriptions, which lie heaped 



38 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

in indiscriminate confusion at the bottom 
of the ravine. 

We left the rugged heights of the moun- 
tains behind us, and came down into the 
lovely fertile valley of Rogue River, among 
green pastures and cultivated fields and 
budding trees. 

Soon appear cosy homes in the midst 
of gardens and blooming orchards of 
peaches, apricots, and cherries. Cows are 
feeding on the green hill-slopes, and live- 
oaks are standing thick about us ; but all 
are destitute of foliage save that of the 
" accursed mistletoe," which hangs in heavy 
clusters so thick upon the leafless boughs 
that at a first glance they seem to be 
clothed in their natural foliage. Poor trees, 
I never see them thus without a feeling of 
sad and regretful sympathy ; for the mistle- 
toe is but a deadly vampire, and the tree 
it fastens upon is doomed to slow decay. 

Upon the eastern side of the valley flows 
Ashland Creek, a tributary of Rogue River. 
Although some distance from our train, we 
know its course by the pretty homesteads 
upon its banks. They stand all along the 
stream, among fields of grain, some green 
and others newly sown. In every instance 



THE PASS OF SISKIYOU. 39 

there was a large peach orchard near by, 
a solid mass of deep rich bloom. Ashland 
is a pretty town in a fine farming district. 
The fertile uplands across the river reach 
far up on the green foot-hills, with grazing 
lands beyond extending to their wooded 
top. 

Farm follows farm, bearing unmistakable 
evidence of the thrift and prosperity of 
their owners, until we arrive at Medford. 
It is the second town at which we have 
stopped in Oregon, and here we dine at the 
station. There is a small brick church 
surrounded by a neat and pretty village, 
all new and evidently the railroad centre 
of Rogue River valley. 

As we leave Medford behind us in the 
early twilight, we pass a wood-crowned 
eminence close upon our right, and look 
out upon a broad open space. The wooded 
hill which we had passed seemed the 
northern terminus of the Hne of white hills 
which had hemmed in the valley on the 
east, and passing through the break made 
by the river in their continuity, we could 
look back of them toward the high moun- 
tains of the lower Cascades. 

We saw Mount Pitt ; it rose, a perfect 



40 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

pyramid in form and immaculate as a white 
drift, 9000 feet in height. About one third 
of its height from the base was covered by 
a growth of evergreens, so scattered, how- 
ever, that they only thinly veiled the snowy 
surfaces beneath them. The rest of the 
mountain had not a blot or shadow to mar 
its whiteness. 

Exactly east of us, and much nearer, 
stood a bare, truncated mountain much 
resembling Round Mountain in Mexico. 
Upon its top there must be a beautiful 
table-land, doubtless the feeding ground of 
the vast herds of wild mountain sheep 
which once abounded here. 

Immediately beyond this, and still nearer 
to us, rises Table Rock. This is indeed a 
" Round Table " about which the spirits of 
earth and air might hold high revels. It 
rises gradually in a circular form for sev- 
eral hundred feet, from which height there 
shoots up a solid perpendicular wall of dark 
gray stone for many hundred feet more, 
without a visible break or seam in any 
part of it. There are portions of it which 
are grooved like gigantic fluted columns, 
adding much to the harmonious symmetry 
of the massive mountain table. It is quite 



THE PASS OF SISKIYOU. 41 

destitute of trees or verdure of any kind 
and about half a mile in diameter. 

The river broadens beyond Table Rock 
into a mirror-like lake, which beautifully 
reflects the mountains and the skies above 
them ; then it contracts, and flows in a 
deep still current along the base of a high, 
thickly wooded range of hills, which grow 
more dense and sombre as the twilight 
deepens. The valley narrows rapidly. Hills 
meet hills upon either side, all darkly cov- 
ered with the tall firs of Oregon, and parted 
only by the swiftly flowing river and the 
narrow ledge upon which our train glides 
on into the darkness of the night. 

This is Grant's Pass, a fascinating place 
in the deep twilight. What must it be in 
the clear light of day } Our fancies can 
well imagine the playful shadows and the 
flecks of sunlight which darken and illu- 
mine the beautiful river, whose rapid flow 
through the narrow pass breaks into lovely 
cascades white as the icy fountains whence 
they came. Through Grant's Pass we 
passed over, during the night of the 6th, 
about two hundred miles of our journey. 

April 7. We awoke in the valley of the 
Willamette River. It is a fertile grain- 



42 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

bearing region, much resembling the Sac- 
ramento valley, and is fast changing from 
pasturage to wheat cultivation. There are 
still widely scattered flocks of sheep and 
herds of cattle, but they are not frequent 
enough to give one the idea of large num- 
bers. 

Mount Hood appears distinct and rosy in 
the morning light. To the southeast, in a 
long dark mountain chain of the Cascade 
Range, is another fine pyramidal mountain, 
rising high above its fellows. Its great 
height indicates that it is covered with 
snow, although it now looks dark and 
frowning as it towers over lesser heights, 
ail white in the morning sunlight. Doubt- 
less it is Mount Jefferson, so situated as 
not to give us a direct reflection of the 
sun. 

Mount Hood is white as marble ; and 
high above the clouds and massive ; but it 
fails to give me that impression of entire 
completeness, that breadth and height of 
sublimity and awful majesty, which seems 
to be incorporate in Mount Shasta, going 
out from it to the beholder with an abun- 
dant sense of satisfaction. When I took 
my last look at Mount Shasta, I felt like 



THE PASS OF SISKIYOU, 43 

" Simeon " ; I had seen its glory, and felt 
the fulness of its majesty. 

We passed through the city of Salem, 
stopping but a few minutes, and went down 
the valley until we came to the falls of the 
river at Oregon City. The "Fall" of the 
full stream over the heaped and ledgy 
rocks, which here form a precipice of per- 
haps twenty feet, is a very pretty feature in 
the somewhat monotonous flow of the river. 
These Falls are situated about fifteen miles 
above Portland, and Oregon City came very 
near to being the most important city of 
this northwestern State. Some trivial in- 
terest turned the tide of settlement to the 
site of Portland, resulting in the founding 
and building up of a great and beautiful 
city there. 



11. 



MOUNT HOOD, MOUNT TACOMA, AND PUGET 
SOUND. 

We arrived at Portland at ten o'clock 
this morning, and obtained good accommo- 
dations at the Esmond House, thanks to 
our kind friend, Mr. Cofran of San Fran- 
cisco, who bespoke for us every care and 
attention while we remained there, until 
April 13th. Portland is a pretty city upon 
the Willamette River, about twelve miles 
from its confluence with the Columbia 
River. It stands upon a narrow strip of 
level area on the west bank of the Wil- 
lamette, along which it extends for several 
miles, reaching back upon the slopes of the 
** Heights " behind the city. These are 
two very high precipitous bluffs called 
" The Heights," from the tops of which a 
wide extent of the surrounding country 
can be seen, to the east and north, embrac- 
ing that region of the State traversed by the 
picturesque Cascade range of mountains. 



MOUNT HOOD. 45 

By the courtesy of our friend Mr. Edwin 
M. Arthur, a banker of Portland, we were 
afforded the rare pleasure of several drives 
with him, behind a spirited pair of sorrel 
horses, to the summits of the lower and 
the upper Heights. 

On both occasions the air was delight- 
fully clear and warm, and balmy with the 
odors of the sweet firs of Oregon. Wild 
flowers were blooming all along our way. 
Dandelions as large as dinner plates, fresh 
and shining in the dew, sent up thick clus- 
ters of yellow blossoms, and multitudes of 
the lovely wild currant shrubs stood upon 
all sides literally shrouded in robes of pink 
bloom, shading from the most delicate rose 
tints to the deepest hues. Little boys came 
out from the narrow footpaths leading into 
the recesses of the hills, their hands filled 
with great bunches of wild trillium, or 
wake-robin, — a far prettier name for the 
lovely wildlings. It looked very strange to 
recognize these flowers growing wild upon 
the '' Heights," and in full blossom on the 
1 2th of April, when we knew that in our 
sunny garden in Massachusetts the green 
foliage had hardly broken the soil above 
them. 



46 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

An abrupt turn in the steep ascent 
turned our eyes away from every attrac- 
tion in our immediate neighborhood to the 
great white mountains in the distance. 
Thenceforth, to the summit of the Height, 
we could behold nothing but the stately 
mountains of Oregon. 

Arriving there, such a scene of tran- 
scendent beauty and grandeur, such a rare 
combination of city and country, rivers and 
valleys, hills and woodlands, and towering 
mountains, reaching far from the south 
across the east to the mountains of Wash- 
ington Territory on the north, we may 
never behold again. 

Almost beneath us lay the beautiful city 
of Portland, with the broad Willamette, 
spanned by airy bridges, and dotted with 
ships and boats of all descriptions, at her 
feet. Across the river, upon the fine roll- 
ing upland were the lovely groves and white 
villas of East Portland ; and beyond, but a 
few miles distant, flows the noble Columbia, 
at this part of its course nearly parallel 
with the Willamette. East of the Colum- 
bia is a broken chain of blue-wooded hills, 
many of them frosted with snow, beyond 
which rise the great earth-born giants. 



MOUNT HOOD. 47 

Mount Hood, Mount St. Helens, Mount 
Adams, and Mounts Tacoma and Jefferson. 
These last two are so far away that we 
can only see their white summits gleaming 
distinct and sharp above the intervening 
mountains against the sky. 

Mount Hood is magnificent in his serene 
grandeur, his sharp angular top shining 
like lustrous pearl in the level sunbeams. 
As the shadows deepen toward his broad, 
tree-covered base, the light takes a rosy 
hue, shading down in deeper tints to a 
solemn purple among the misty mazes of 
the foot-hills below. 

St. Helens rises on our left, graceful and 
peerless in her beauty as a stately bride. 
Her white mantle of spotless purity falls 
over her head and drapes gracefully down 
her sides like a soft-flowing raiment of 
white wool. 

Mount Adams rises from behind a grizzly 
mountain ridge, a double-headed giant, 
broad and massive as if he bore the ** eter- 
nal years of God " upon his forehead ; cleft 
from the crown of his head down deep into 
his heart, he rises stern and implacable to 
Time and the elements. 

Tacoma, from its distance, is a sugges- 



48 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

tion rather than an assertion of height, and 
Mount Jefferson rises above a distant chain 
of mountains almost as pointed as an arrow 
head, and white as alabaster. The three 
mountains which have thus far stood in 
preeminent grandeur before us, are Mount 
Shasta, Mount Hood, and St. Helens. 
" There is a glory of the Sun, and a glory of 
the Moon, and another glory of the Stars." 

As we descended from the Heights down 
the rough zigzag road, but little better than 
the old trail which it once was, we had a 
fine bird's-eye view of the city below us. 
Its broad and well-paved streets, with their 
long lines of shade and ornamental trees 
and shrubs, just bursting into leaf and blos- 
som ; its many handsome and often palatial 
residences, with their richly shaven lawns 
and hedges and rare shrubs ; its ornate and 
costly churches ; its large, numerous, and 
tasteful public buildings ; its great business 
blocks and crowded wharves ; its busy ve- 
hicles and street cars running in every 
direction, — all impress us forcibly with an 
appreciation of the rapid growth, the wealth 
and importance of this "Queen City" of 
our great "Northwest." 

To-morrow morning we shall leave Ore- 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 49 

gon behind us, as we go northward on our 
journey to Tacoma in Washington Terri- 
tory. It is a lovely State, and very desir- 
able for residence. Were I called upon to- 
night to choose the location of my " five 
acre lot " on this Pacific coast, I should de- 
cide, without any hesitation, upon one of 
the many pleasant spots about the city of 
Portland. The winters here are mild and 
delightful, the seasons have the same di- 
versity as in New England, with less ex- 
tremes of either heat or cold. The country 
is very fertile, the surface undulating, the 
rivers large and navigable, and the people 
refined, cultivated, and very hospitable. 

April I},. We left Portland late on the 
morning of the 13th, taking the railway 
train for Tacoma, Washington Territory. 
There was a heavy fog over the river and 
the surrounding country, entirely hiding 
the mountains from our view. It soon be- 
gan to dissipate, and gradually one after 
another of the cloud-like peaks and domes 
of the mountains came from the mists and 
filled our gaze for the time to the exclusion 
of everything else. I saw the Willamette 
flowing mirror-like along our way, between 
green banks and lovely hill-slopes, with 



50 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

broad expanses of pasturages and low 
shrubby marsh lands intervening, and 
noted the graceful beauty of the blossom- 
ing wild currants. 

We reached the Columbia River at about 
two o'clock. It is a very broad, deep, and 
majestic river, moving on between its wild 
and wooded banks with a stately motion, 
not swift and broken, but mighty, forceful, 
and irresistible. Our train crossed the 
Columbia upon a large transportation ferry- 
boat, and we arrived at Kalama. This is a 
small town, having considerable traffic in 
lumber, vast quantities of which lay all 
about ready for exportation. For nearly 
our whole route to Tacoma some of the 
- great mountains were in view. At one 
time, for a long distance, the five majestic 
mountains, Jefferson, Hood, Adams, St. 
Helens, and Tacoma, stood distinct and 
white as marble, piercing the heavens with 
their lofty tops, — such a procession of 
mountain grandeur it is seldom the good 
fortune of a traveller to behold. The day 
was exceptionally clear, the atmosphere 
more like the balmy breath of June than of 
April, and wild roses, wake-robins, Oregon 
lilies, and the creamy-white wild callas were 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 5 1 

blooming abundantly, upon all our way 
from Portland to the city of Tacoma. 
From Kalama to Little Falls we followed 
the course of the Cowlitz, and in this por- 
tion of our journey we had our best views 
of Adams and St. Helens. They stood 
exactly east of us, from forty to fifty miles 
away, with no elevations of sufficient height 
to break the apparent level of the inter- 
vening country. The Cowlitz River is a 
fine stream of clear, ice-cold water, flowing 
rapidly down its frequently rocky bed from 
its sources among the foot-hills of Mount 
Ranier or Tacoma and St. Helens. Ka- 
lama stands near to its junction with the 
Columbia River. We followed the Cow- 
litz northward through many romantic 
scenes of woodland beauty, to the town of 
Little Falls, where the white and emerald 
water flows rapidly over a steep incline in 
its course, forming a succession of lovely 
cascades and miniature misty falls. 

At Tenino we diverged from our north- 
ern course which led onward to Olympia, 
the capital of Washington Territory, and 
taking a northeasterly direction to Tacoma 
we crossed a very beautiful tract of coun- 
try, called Yelm Prairie. This is a fine 



52 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

broad upland prairie, many miles in extent, 
and ornamented throughout its length and 
breadth by the beautiful and symmetrical 
Norway spruce, with here and there tall 
groups of the native firs and pines. The 
soil is shallow, but the turf was green and 
smooth as a shaven lawn, and starred 
by great patches of wild strawberry blos- 
soms. From Yelm Prairie we had a splen- 
did view of Mount Tacoma. It looks 
larger and higher from this place of obser- 
vation than it does from the city of Ta- 
coma. Like Shasta, it presented various 
shapes as we journeyed across the prairie, 
and we could individualize its great shoul- 
ders, peaks, and fields of ice, which all go 
to make up the perfect symmetry of its 
grand dome as seen from Tacoma. 

As we approached the city we observed 
large tracts of stump land, where the lum- 
bermen had cut, and then devastated by 
fire, the stately trees and forest lands. It 
looks very wasteful to our Eastern eyes to 
see such lavish waste of these noble forests 
as met our observation upon all sides in 
our journey from San Francisco to Tacoma. 
Time will rectify this extravagance, no 
doubt. 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 53 

A pleasant apartment was given to us at 
"The Tacoma," one which afforded us an 
outlook upon Puget Sound, at Commence- 
ment Bay, into which just before our win- 
dow flowed the Puyallup River. Across the 
bay was a fine forest of pines and firs, 
upon a point of high land jutting into the 
Sound, appropriated by government to the 
Puyallup Indians. This is called the " In- 
dian Reservation," and is occupied by the 
Puyallups, a remnant of the old Modocs 
who gave the early settlers of this country 
so much trouble by their resistance to the 
encroachments of the whites upon what 
they deemed their rightful heritage. About 
fifty miles to the southeast stands " Mount 
Tacoma," or, as it is known elsewhere in 
the territory. Mount Rainier. 

April 15. Mount Rainier, or Tacoma, 
has shone fitfully upon our sight since we 
arrived here on the evening of the 13th. 
Clouds often obscure its top and frequently 
hide the whole mountain. It seems to be 
not more than five miles away, but we are 
assured its distance is fifty miles. Last 
night the sunset light upon the great moun- 
tain was very lovely. It shone and glis- 
tened like silver, then changed to a rosy 



54 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

hue which brightened into a rich rose red 
upon its icy shoulders, thence fell in darker 
but duller tints down among the shadowy 
foot-hills and valleys. The Tacomians 
boast that Mount Tacoma has fifteen dis- 
tinct glaciers upon its summit and sides. 
C. thinks it is the grandest mountain we 
have yet seen. It does not so impress me. 
It is a magnificent object to look upon, 
different from the others, yet not wholly 
unHke St. Helens. There is no falling 
away in its proportions in any part. It is 
sustained throughout its entire height and 
breadth — a grand and majestic work of 
nature. The people here claim it is the 
highest of all the mountains of the Cascade 
ranges. It may be so. There is so little 
difference between it and Shasta, there may 
well be a question in the mind of an ob- 
server as to which of the two mountains 
belong the extra two feet which mark the 
difference in their height. 

At six o'clock p. M. the sun is shining 
clear, the tide is stealing in upon the flats 
of Commencement Bay, and the clouds are 
lifting and gracefully floating away from 
the towering head of Tacoma ; which, for 
a full hour after the town below it is 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 55 

wrapped in the shades of twilight, will 
shine down serenely upon us steeped in 
the mellow glow of the sunset. 

April 17. Tacoma is situated upon the 
west shore of the bay, upon a high bluff 
which rises still higher to the top of a 
long level area, where are many fine villa 
residences and several fine churches. The 
Anna Wright Seminary for girls stands 
well up the steep slope with its various de- 
pendent structures, all large and fine-look- 
ing buildings. The seminary is in a highly 
prosperous condition, and numbers among 
its pupils young ladies from all parts of our 
northwestern States and Territories. Near 
by is another fine educational institution 
for boys, also well patronized. Pacific 
Avenue, lower down the slope, is a very 
imposing, long street, with fine warehouses 
and mercantile buildings upon both sides, 
including four well appointed banks and 
various other public buildings. Farther 
north, where the shore dips to the Sound, 
is the old village of Tacoma, now united 
with the Young Tacoma by a broad avenue 
where are many fine residences. At Old 
Tacoma is the little church, the first that 
was built by the pioneers of the city, which 



56 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

boasts of possessing the oldest bell tower 
in the country, if not the world. The small 
church was built with one corner abutting 
upon a noble silver fir-tree, one of the 
oldest and stateliest of its kind. This was 
cut off about seventy feet from the ground, 
and at this height was suspended a bell, to 
be rung by a rope depending from it to the 
ground. Ivy climbs and covers its gray bark 
with its beautiful green verdure, and gives 
it a very picturesque and pleasing effect. 
A little farther on upon the shore are the 
shipping wharves of the city, and near to 
them are very large lumber mills and grain 
elevators. The harbor is deep and wide, 
and from the broad, extended piers ships 
depart daily for all southern ports upon 
our own coast, and frequent shipments of 
lumber are taken to China, Japan, the Sand- 
wich Islands, and South America. 

The population of Tacoma numbers over 
twenty thousand. The three rival cities of 
our North Pacific coast are Portland, Ta- 
coma, and Seattle. Each one claims pre- 
eminence. Portland is the oldest. Ta- 
coma and Seattle are more enthusiastic and 
progressive. The leading business men of 
Tacoma are, as a rule, young men, ambi- 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 57 

tious and full of " public spirit." The strong 
and determined will to do, and overcome 
obstacles in the way of progress — which 
animated our forefathers upon the eastern 
shores of our continent — seems to pervade 
and fill the atmosphere of Tacoma. At no 
other city on the Pacific coast were we 
more impressed with the intelligent and 
intellectual appearance of its young mqn. 
There were at least seventy-five, perhaps 
more of them, who frequented the dining 
hall during our stay in the city, who are 
engaged in active business there. There 
was an atmosphere of frankness and re- 
spectability about those energetic young 
business men whom we saw, that quite 
won our confidence and respect. The scen- 
ery about Tacoma is diversified and charm- 
ing. The waters of Puget Sound, with its 
winding shores and beautiful islands, the 
peerless Mount Tacoma — ever grand yet 
ever lovely, whether we behold it in the 
golden light of the morning, the solemn 
pearly whiteness of the noontide, or the 
roseate hues of the sunset, — afford a rare 
combination of loveliness and grandeur. 

April 19. At no place in our western 
tour have we been more hospitably enter- 



58 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

tained, or found a more cordial reception 
as tourists, than at the city of Tacoma. 
** The Tacoma " is an exceptionally delight- 
ful and home-like house, large and com- 
plete in all its appointments ; in many re- 
spects luxurious in the comforts it affords 
its guests. Its table service is most irre- 
proachable, its cuisine excellent, and its 
proprietor and manager a thorough gentle- 
man in every respect. Our hearty thanks 
are due to Mr. W. D. Tyler for much kind- 
ness and courtesy during our two visits to 
the city of Tacoma. 

We went on board the steamer Olympian 
this morning at eight o'clock, bound for 
Victoria, B. C. The morning was some- 
what misty, but before an hour had passed 
the sun shone out, and all was bright as a 
summer day. We steamed down the bay 
between the Indian Reservation and the 
city shore, past the large sawmills, which 
manufacture vast quantities of lumber for 
our own Pacific, and many foreign ports ; 
past old Tacoma, which sat upon the low 
shore beyond, dingy and neglected like a 
gray old Indian squaw, at the feet of the 
beautiful and ambitious young Tacoma 
upon the bluffs above ; and rounding the 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 59 

point of the Indian Woodlands, passed on, 
between it and a large green island as yet 
untouched by civilization, toward the en- 
terprising city of Seattle. 

We were in a quiet and contemplative 
frame of mind, amiable and satisfied with 
ourselves and our surroundings. There 
was nothing in the line of lofty grandeur 
to call forth expressions of amazement or 
admiration, and a state of assurance that 
everything was well with us had settled in 
our minds, when we received information 
that our baggage was all left behind upon 
the wharf at Tacoma. We were on board 
the fast going steamer Olympian, no other 
craft could overtake her, if it tried ever 
so hard ; we concluded to make the best 
of a stupid blunder and go on our way to 
Victoria without it, trusting the assurance 
given us that it would be forwarded the 
next day. We passed the head of the 
beautiful island on our left, then another 
smaller but no less wild and romantic 
one, and rounding a sharp headland on our 
right, entered into the fine deep harbor of 
Seattle. 

As we steamed up to th€ pier, we saw a 
crowd of white men, Indians, and China- 



6o PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

men awaiting our arrival. We remained 
there but fifteen minutes, and made our 
observations of the town and its harbor 
from the deck of the steamer. Seattle gave 
us the impression of a large and thrifty 
town or city rising quickly from the ab- 
rupt shore to a high ridge, which appeared 
to slope gently inland on the other side. 
The harbor is almost circular. Across 
the broad entrance the distant Olympian 
range of mountains stood straight as a 
massive and gigantic wall ; the many miles 
of foreground, beyond the water, were fore- 
shortened to a long dark strip on which it 
seemed to stand. South of the city, Mount 
Tacoma rose lofty and white, looking, as 
she really is, as much a part of the scenery 
about Seattle as of Tacoma. The people 
of Seattle refuse to call it by any name but 
Mount Rainier. The situation of the town 
is very commanding ; its wharfage almost 
unlimited, affording most excellent facili- 
ties for commercial enterprise. There are 
large and substantial business blocks of 
stone and brick, schools, hospitals, fine 
public buildings, and private residences, 
giving evidences of taste, wealth, and enter- 
prise. The natural scenery surrounding 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 6 1 

Seattle is exceptionally attractive, the peo- 
ple public-spirited and ambitious, and the 
natural advantages of position and climatic 
conditions of situation are all conducive to 
the rapid growth of a great and prosperous 
city. 

We passed out of the harbor of Seattle, 
leaving a broad white wake behind, leading 
back like a marble paved street to the city ; 
so quiet are the waters that the track was 
unbroken by neither sign nor ripple of a 
counter current. We rounded another pro- 
jecting point, passed to the westward of 
another green, fir-covered island, and came 
into a broad expanse of the Sound. The 
sea was waveless, there was just a wrinkled 
surface, which quivered and gently undu- 
lated in response to the throbbing, onward 
motion of the great wheels, which churned 
the water into hissing, crystal foam, and 
trailed it behind our ship like a broad white 
banner on the sea. The color of the water 
was the darkest marine blue, with occa- 
sional spots of lighter tint, a reflection of 
the thin white clouds which were floating 
above it. 

West of us extended the rarely beautiful 
Olympian Range of mountains. The shore 



62 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

and country lying between the Sound and 
the mountains was a mere narrow strip to 
our eyes, just a strong dividing line be- 
tween them, though really many miles in 
breadth, embracing within it Hood's Chan- 
nel, a broad inlet of the sea, which divides 
the " Great Peninsula " from the region of 
the Olympian Range. 

East of us the shore rose abruptly, with 
tall firs covering its whole extent, and 
fringing the blue horizon with their dark 
spires. Bending round toward the north 
in the far distance, the shore seemed to 
clasp us upon all sides, with its dark bluish 
border of evergreens, like a low wall sepa- 
rating the blue "of the sky above from the 
intense deep blue of the sea below. Above 
this wall, exactly to the north of us, stood 
Mount Baker, pure as the whitest drift of 
snow, shadowless and spotless from peak to 
base, separated from the sea by its foot- 
hills, a long blue mound just one shade 
brighter than the water and one shade 
darker than the sky. There was an entire 
absence of every suggestion of color, save 
the four distinct and pure shades of blue ; 
the marble whiteness of high pyramidal 
Mount Baker was the only visible object 



MOUNT TACOMA AND PUGET SOUND. 6'^ 

to break the perfect monochrome. As we 
steamed on toward Port Townsend, the 
enchantment of the scene remained unbro- 
ken ; and soon the loftier peaks of the Cas- 
cade Range began to rise above the blue 
wall of firs, until we reached a part of our 
voyage where the entire Cascade Range, 
from Mount Baker on the north to Tacoma 
on the south, stood in one long and grand 
procession of white -capped summits. I 
counted fifty-three; those near to Mount 
Tacoma were more dimly seen, but still 
definitely white. 

Upon our left, toward the Pacific coast, 
extended the fine Olympian Range ; in it 
I counted twenty-two white summits, which 
were especially prominent among the many 
more less conspicuous ones. These are 
massive, clear-cut heights, with sides like 
the faces of a diamond, some white, with 
great depths of level snow, and others blue 
and shining like flint, too perpendicular to 
admit either snow or ice to cover them. 
The Olympian Mountains, though not as 
high as many we have seen, impress us 
with a sense of elegance and stateliness 
which belong peculiarly to themselves. 

Port Townsend is a port of entrance 



64 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

on our coast near the military post, Fort 
Townsend, which commands the Strait of 
Juan de Fuca. Across the strait, and but 
twenty-six miles away, is the city of Vic- 
toria, B. C. Port Townsend is not a large 
town, but is gradually increasing in impor- 
tance. It is the centre of traffic for many 
miles upon our northwestern coast ; lum- 
ber, iron-piping, and various other articles 
of merchandise, being the freight taken 
upon our boat for distribution at ports 
farther north. As a port of entry it stands 
among the foremost in our country, in 
the number of seagoing crafts which are 
obliged to call there and report to govern- 
ment officials, in passing between northern 
and southern ports of the Pacific coast. 

We called at the post-office, the dry- 
goods stores, and its one bookstore. The 
postmaster was not blessed with the spirit 
of accommodation, but by perseverance on 
our part we were able to accomplish our 
legitimate business there, and proceeded to 
the bookstore to purchase something to 
instruct us on our voyage to Alaska. The 
clerk in attendance politely regretted his 
inability to serve us. He had nothing in 
Stock to answer to our demands ; he " had 



PUGET SOUND. 65 

everything we asked for last year, but they 
were all sold to tourists, and the stock had 
not been replenished." ''The stock" was 
so slender that it would not stand upright 
upon his shelves, which gave us an impres- 
sion that the social atmosphere of Port 
Townsend had in it but a slight admixture 
of that tonic which improves the taste and 
appetite for reading and general cultiva- 
tion. 

We next ventured to ascend a much in- 
clined plank walk rising not very gradu- 
ally above the roofs of tall buildings on 
main street below, to the high bluff above 
them. We found there the dwelling-houses, 
the churches, halls, etc., of the town. I 
think the cliff must be nearly two hundred 
feet above the Sound. There was a pretty 
village of cosy cottage homes, with neat 
flower gardens in front and lace curtains 
within, and with small and large dogs lying 
lazily upon the doorsteps. There were four 
small churches, all within a stone's-throw 
of each other, which led us to infer that 
the small town of about fifteen hundred 
people was not destitute of its full comple- 
ment of choir disagreements, its stings of 
village gossip, and various other annoying 



66 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

jealousies, common to a small community, 
wherein too many spires are pointing 
heavenward to the joys of the future rather 
than to the every-day duties of the present 
life. We were introduced to Judge Swan, 
who has lived at Port Town send for thirty 
years. He is a man of influence in the 
town, and much versed in the native lore 
of the Northwest, as well as in various 
scientific matters relating to this portion 
of our country. We left the deep waters 
of Port Townsend, and after we had passed 
the light-house, which stands out into the 
channel upon a long, level reach of sandy 
beach, we steamed rapidly into the current 
of the strait where it sets into the Sound. 
The sea was changed ; though not dis- 
agreeably rough, the gentle ripple had given 
place to distinct waves and currents. 

Mount Baker and its long trailing line 
of lesser heights gradually faded from our 
sight ; but the cold steel-blue Olympians 
kept even pace with us, and seemed neither 
to recede nor change their relative posi- 
tions with each other. When we arrived 
at Victoria, there they stood exactly oppo- 
site to its picturesque and island-locked 
harbor. 



PUGET SOUND. 6/ 

At six o'clock in the evening we are 
pleasantly established in a commodious 
room, at the Driard House, where we 
shall await the arrival of the steamship 
George W. Elder, upon which we are to 
resume our travels to Alaska. 



III. 

VICTORIA AND NANAIMO, B. C, TO FORT 
TONGAS, ALASKA. 

April 19. The day was dark and rainy, 
and we spent it mostly in our room. I 
made one excursion to a bookstore and 
purchased Lieut. Schwatka's "Alaska," 
and a small guide-book to the Chinook 
language. This last we studied in the dim 
light of the day, and were much amused as 
well as complimented by finding that the 
Indians throughout the entire Northwest 
give the name of " Boston " to all white in- 
habitants of the United States, as well as 
to the whole country itself. In fact, " Bos- 
ton " has more significance to these native 
Alaskans than any other word in their or 
the English language. To them it stands 
for intelligence, incomprehensible power, 
and destiny. Mr. Holden with a party of 
tourists, who came to Victoria with us, 
took their drives about the city in spite of 
the rain, and after dinner went on board 
the return boat for Tacoma. 



VICTORIA. 69 

We experienced no sense of loneliness, 
however, at being left behind ; for the 
people of British Columbia are very like 
our people though as yet not of us, a mis- 
take which time will rectify. 

April 21. The sun rose brilliant, and 
we went out early in the morning to look 
about the city. We called at a shoe-store 
and bought rubber boots. The proprietor 
served us, and recognizing us as tourists, 
began to talk about *' the States." We 
smiled assent to all he had to say, and I am 
quite sure we were especially amiable in 
our expressions, for he remarked, '' I like 
the States and I like the people ; I have 
seen two or three very nice gentlemen who 
came from the States. In fact I should 
not feel so very bad if they were annexed 
some time." After much search among 
dry-goods stores we succeeded in finding 
some long wool gaiters ; observing that 
they were black we bought them, remem- 
bering the good service they might possi- 
bly do Its in case of shipwreck. At Hib- 
bins' bookstore we furnished ourselves, in 
addition to our work on Alaska, with a 
volume of Whittier's poems and another of 
Lowell's. Thus equipped we considered 



JO PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

ourselves equal to a voyage around the 
world, as far as our literary needs were 
considered. Next we arranged for a drive. 
From the stand in the street we chose a 
large barouche, not especially for its size, 
but because it was the cleanest, nicest, 
looking vehicle at hand, and the driver pos- 
sessed an air of intelligence. The carriage 
was large enough to do convoy duty for the 
*' Great Mogul," but we knew we should 
have to pay for our state drive a fixed sum, 
and why not have all we were to pay for. 

Our driver proved to be a man from Bos- 
ton, and finding we too were from Massa- 
chusetts, he at once felt called upon to vin- 
dicate himself for abandoning that " Hub 
of the Universe," by showing us all that 
was worth the seeing in the city of his 
adoption. His employer advised him to 
show us all he could of the country, " for," 
said he, " if they are going to Alaska, they 
will see nothing but snow and ice, until 
they get back again." We found the city 
of Victoria to be neat and thrifty-looking, 
growing substantially if not rapidly, with a 
good though small harbor. The Chinese 
wholly occupy several streets, which are 
clean and well ordered ; the buildings are 



VICTORIA. yi 

many of them large wholesale establish- 
ments, the proprietors importing directly 
from China and Japan. Schoolhouses are 
not as numerous and prominent as in the 
new cities of the United States. 

There is a large tract of land just outside 
the city proper, though within its limits, 
which is owned by the city, and held for a 
park. It is finely situated upon the shore 
of the Sound, having a pleasant outlook 
across it to our grand Olympians, and con- 
taining a fine natural growth of fir-trees 
with groups of other varieties. It contains 
a broad parade ground and a pretty eleva- 
tion upon which stands a flagstaff, which 
C. says ''had we kept to our slogan of '54° 
40' or fight ' as we ought, would now be 
proudly floating the ' Stars and Stripes ' of 
the United States." 

After dinner we repacked our trunks to 
have all things in readiness for a sudden 
departure on shipboard for Alaska. We 
had been told by a gruff official that the 
Elder had been telegraphed, and would 
probably be in port Sunday morning ; that 
she seldom remained in port more than an 
hour or two, and sometimes she did not 
even come into the upper harbor at all, 



J 2 PICTURESQUE ALASKA, 

thus saving time and port dues. We were 
informed by our landlord, however, that at 
whatever time the ship came in on Sunday, 
she could not leave port without her clear- 
ance papers on Monday morning. But he 
was not an official, and upon which should 
we rely } 

A full-blooded Englishman here is just 
as jealous of Americans as it is possible 
for him to be ; and he cannot see what 
American women want to go wandering all 
over the world for. There is great danger 
of the English women contracting the fever 
of travel by so much touring about on the 
part of the Americans, "who," he maintains, 
** have no domesticity about them as our 
English wives have." Perhaps the Eng- 
lishman in question rather enjoyed the 
wholesome potion of worry and uncertainty 
which he knew he had given us. In the 
evening a lady called upon us. She had 
been to Alaska and seen the wonderful 
scenery, etc., but her chief recollection of 
her trip seemed to be that she was not per- 
mitted to wade into the water and catch a 
twenty-four pound salmon — which she was 
sure she could have done, lifting him out 
by the gills, if the captain only would have 



VICTORIA. 73 

allowed her to go on shore. Others did 
it, and why should not her ambition have 
been satisfied as well as theirs. We wrote 
home letters and retired hopeful for the 
arrival of the Steamer in the morning. 

April 22. Morning came fair, and prom- 
ising a fine day. We listened for the 
boom of the Elder's gun, but heard it not. 
We breakfasted and questioned our land- 
lord of the probabilities, etc. He could 
tell us nothing satisfactory. There had 
been some disturbances among the steam- 
ship companies, some ill-feeling about fish- 
eries, smuggling opium, etc., of late, which 
might operate to carry the Elder by with- 
out a call. At all events it was well to be 
in readiness, etc. We dressed ourselves 
for the voyage, having all things else packed 
snugly away in our satchels and trunks, 
and sat down in our room to await a call 
for the Steamer. It occurred to us that, 
through the kindness of Mr. Valentine, of 
Wells, Fargo & Co. in San Francisco, who 
had been of great assistance to us in our 
tour of California, we had introductory cre- 
dentials to Mr. A. A. Green of the same 
company in Victoria. In our uncertainty 
about the arrival of the Elder, we decided 



74 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

to dispatch a note to him. In less than 
an hour after, we received a call from Mr. 
Green, who brought to us an invitation to 
lunch, from Mrs. Green. The invitation 
was pressed with so much cordiality that, in 
spite of the inappropriateness of our cos- 
tumes, we accepted and went. Mrs. Green 
is an extremely interesting English lady. 
She has six lovely children, and with them 
all we had our most delightful experience 
in Victoria. It was now Sunday evening, 
and no token had we yet received of the 
George W. Elder. What if the ship should 
fulfil all the forebodings which the gruff 
officials had implanted in our minds, and 
we, in consequence, be really left behind to 
lament our disappointment } We sat down 
before our blazing fire, the only bright thing 
about us, mental, physical, or material, and 
be^an to write more letters to the dear 
friends at home. But what could we write 
to them } Such an atmosphere of doubt 
and uncertainty enveloped us that we actu- 
ally had no foundation to build another 
letter upon. Consequently we began to 
scribble nonsense, just to amuse ourselves 
and help to restore our minds to their usual 
sanguine condition. The George W. Elder 



ON BOARD THE ELDER. 75 

had become a kind of phantom ship, which 
yet might materiahze on the morrow. 

April 2^. In an early walk before break- 
fast we learned of the arrival, outside the 
harbor, of the G. W. Elder. Hastening 
back to our hotel, we ate our breakfasts, 
and took a carriage for her moorings two 
or three miles below the city. There had 
been no opportunity for us to provide our- 
selves with tickets, for as the season of 
excursions had not arrived, no provision 
for a sale of tickets had been made. We 
went on board carrying a letter to Captain 
Hunter from Mr. Luther L. Holden, of 
Raymond's excursion company, which by 
his kind courtesy was so happily expressed 
in our behalf that it at once bespoke for 
us the respectful and unremitting care of 
Captain Hunter, who cordially welcomed 
us to all the comforts and enjoyment 
throughout our voyage that his kingdom, 
the good ship Elder, could bestow. To- 
day we are the only ladies on board the 
ship. Not even a stewardess goes upon 
this trip. 

At 10.30 A. M. the Steamer lifted her 
gang-plank, slipped her hawser, and gently 
gliding from her moorings at the pier. 



y6 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

swung her prow slowly out into the clear 
water and proceeded on her way. She had 
come to Victoria from San Francisco, call- 
ing upon her way at Portland, Oregon, one 
hundred miles up the Columbia River, and 
was now going south to Port Townsend 
and Seattle before steaming northward to 
Alaska. 

We found the two state-rooms opening 
into the grand saloon unoccupied. They 
were freshly upholstered and refurnished 
in a tasteful and even luxurious style. We 
at once took possession, depositing our 
wraps and satchels and arranging gener- 
ally for a three weeks' voyage. 

We arrived at Port Townsend at two 
o'clock p. M., and our ship was made secure 
to the pier. She began immediately to 
discharge freight from San Francisco, and 
take on freight for more northern ports. 
The crew labored with great expedition, 
with others upon the wharf, to store in the 
capacious hold of the Elder immense 
quantities of lumber, lime, iron tubing, and 
empty cans for the salmon canneries. A 
large sailing-ship. The Mexico, had followed 
in the track of the Elder all the way from 
San Francisco, calling at many ports and 



ON BOARD THE ELDER. 77 

shipping at every opportunity from her 
hold to the Elder's, endless boxes of canned 
fruits and cabbages, and vegetables of all 
kinds ; groceries of every description had 
before been shipped at San Francisco. 
We could not help wondering where such 
quantities of bulk found storage. Toward 
night I asked a deck-boy if we were going 
to stay in port all night. He replied, "■ No, 
marm ; I rather think she will, though she 
may start at ten o'clock." This illustrates 
the definiteness of any information obtained 
from the ship's crew, and shows at the 
same time how little they know of the in- 
tentions of the officers. ''Theirs, not to 
question, but to do." 

Some time in the night I was aware that 
our ship was in motion. The moon was 
shining brightly upon the water and I re- 
cognized our bearings. We were on our 
way to Seattle, almost a day's voyage from 
Victoria, and steaming away from Alaska. 
What matters it, I thought ; we are afloat, 
and shall be for three weeks to come ; the 
more we see of this beautiful Puget Sound, 
its lovely bays and shores, its enterprising 
ports and newly-fledged towns and cities, 
the better shall we learn to appreciate 



78 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

these rich and wonderful parts of our great 
country. 

April 24. We arrived at Seattle at seven 
A. M,, and after breakfast went on shore. 
We called at the " Occidental," a fine large 
hotel, well furnished as a modern house 
in every respect, but evidently not large 
enough for its patronage, as evidenced by 
an equally capacious brick annex in process 
of construction. 

We went into a large book and stationery 
store, where we found a great variety of 
stationery of all grades, all kinds of gold 
and stylographic pens, and bric-a-brac of 
endless variety. No bookstore in the old 
city of Boston makes a larger or finer- 
looking display of all kinds of literature 
than does this in the young city of Seat- 
tle. There are here many indications 
that Seattle is yet to be the great city of 
our Northwest ; and in time, it is possible, 
no city upon our entire Pacific coast will 
excel it in commercial importance. Its 
destiny is foreshadowed by its matchless 
harbor, its nearness to Eastern countries, 
and more than all by the enterprise and 
far-sightedness of its people. They build 
for the future. 



AT NANAIMO. 79 

At 3 P. M. we were back again at our 
moorings at Port Townsend, where we took 
on board two immense iron boilers for 
northern canneries and great quantities of 
sheet tin. We left port in the night, 
passed Victoria, and were really northward 
bound for Alaska. 

April 25. We awoke at Nanaimo at the 
booming of our ship's gun, early in the 
morning. Nanaimo is a British coaling 
port, situated on the east coast of Van- 
couver's Island, about eighty miles by sea 
above Victoria, with which it has recently 
been connected by rail, which lessens the 
distance to forty miles. It is a very pictu- 
resque town, whose importance is due to 
the extensive coal mines which are almost 
in its very centre. The shaft is 650 feet 
deep, and the tunnel extending from the 
bottom reaches far out under the waters of 
the harbor. We watched the operation of 
raising the coal in small cars suspended in 
the shaft, and saw the black masses brought 
to the light of day, which had lain hidden 
in the secret places of the earth beneath 
the waters of the Gulf of Georgia for ages, 
too many for our knowledge of such forma- 
tions to number. The coal looked like 



8o PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

mineralized leaf mould. It is a good fuel 
and seems to be a medium between the 
bituminous coal of Nova Scotia and the 
anthracite of Pennsylvania. The inhabi- 
tants of the town are all more or less inter- 
ested in the mines, either as laborers or 
agents. The owners of the mines are 
English capitalists who live in England. 
The profits of the mining operations all 
go to them. The poor miners get barely- 
enough recompense to keep themselves 
and families from the ills of abject poverty. 
The merchants, grocers, etc., in the town 
seem almost to share the same condition. 

We lingered at the shaft and saw the 
descent and ascent of the miners to and 
from their labors. They went down a 
decent clean-faced set of men, but came 
up hideous with grime and labor. They 
all appeared cheerful and happy ; but those 
who came up from the pit leaped and 
hurried along their homeward way, some 
bearing no fancied resemblance to fiends 
escaped from purgatory. 

We went among the homes of the mi- 
ners. The houses were poor and small, but 
many of them had a flower-bed in front, 
where were blooming nearly all of the com- 



AT NANAIMO. 8 1 

mon varieties which bloom in our own 
gardens in June or even later. Some of 
them had been in flower for more than 
two months, we were told. All fruit-trees, 
except the apple, were in blossom, the cur- 
rants were past, and the fruit was well 
formed. One lady insisted upon giving us 
a large clump of daisies, which we admired, 
and for which I bought a tin basin. It grew 
and sent up more than twenty lovely blos- 
soms on our voyage. 

It began to rain. It rains so easily here 
that the sun will be shining one instant 
and the next will bring down a dash of rain 
which will drench you through, if you have 
not taken the precaution to provide your- 
self with waterproof and rubbers. 

We opened another gate and took shelter 
under a broad piazza, where lay a large 
brown spaniel. The dog gave us assurances 
of welcome by a lazy blink of his eyes, and 
a half-mind to wag his tail, and we leaned 
against the house to await the passing of 
the shower. The door was soon opened 
by a tall, pleasant-looking lady, who invited 
us into her parlor. She was a native of 
Australia, who came with her father to 
Nanaimo eight years before, and now longs 



82 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

to return to her native land. We took the 
shortest way to our ship after the rain sub- 
sided, but again were overtaken by a smart 
dash of a shower, against which our gar- 
ments were proof. 

The ship was still storing coal, which is 
delivered in her hold for ^/.oo per ton. It 
requires three hundred tons to accomplish 
a round trip, and Captain Hunter told us 
the ship's daily expenses were ^800, — a 
sufficient reason, I suppose, why we should 
pay $100 for our passage, making good the 
adage, " Those who ride in pomp must pay 
for it." 

We spent the afternoon in watching the 
construction of a deep-water pier and 
timing the divers, which were floating like 
ducks, which they much resemble, all about 
the harbor. 

Mrs. Dr. Willard from Chicago is on 
board. She took passage at Port Town- 
send for Juneau, where her son, Rev. Mr. 
Willard, is a missionary. She has been so 
retired and quiet since she came on board 
that we have as yet hardly formed her 
acquaintance, although we are glad to know 
that we have a female fellow-passenger. 

April 26. Still at Nanaimo waiting for 



AT NA ATA /MO. 83 

a pilot. We have learned that a pilot is 
necessary throughout our voyage. There 
are but two or three good ones on this 
coast, and delays of a day or more often 
occur while awaiting a return pilot. We 
went to bed last night and were lulled to 
sleep by the combined harmony of falling 
coal and amateur thrummings upon the 
piano. The full moon shone brightly at 
midnight, but the morning is dark and 
rainy. 

With four or five others, we have our 
meals at Captain Hunter's table. A gen- 
tleman sits opposite to us who was one of 
the six adventurous explorers who went 
with Professor Hayden into the region of 
the Yellowstone, previous to the explora- 
tion made by Professor Hayden and his com.- 
pany under government patronage. The 
first exploration was made in 1864, long 
before the Yosemite Valley became known 
to tourists. Mr. Hammond told us they 
were ninety days wandering about that 
hitherto unvisited tract of country without 
meeting a human creature; not an Indian 
was sighted in all that time. They experi- 
enced no hair-breadth escapes, and the most 
serious misfortune they had was the com- 



84 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

plete saturation of their sacks of flour, which 
was occasioned by the slipping of the mule, 
which carried it, into a large stream. Mr. 
Hammond had made four previous voyages 
to Alaska, and was extremely kind through- 
out our passage to Sitka, in calling our 
attention to many wonderful and interest- 
ing sights and natural features of the 
islands and coast which might otherwise 
have escaped our notice. 

One minute of sunshine and the next of 
shower is what we are told to expect in 
this latitude at this season. Toward night 
we had a shower of hailstones. The clouds 
and the water were wild, and both swirled 
and danced in response to the strong gusts 
of wind which accompanied the shower. 
The squall subsided as quickly as it came, 
and the sun shone out brightly, the waters 
settled into their customary calm as if 
neither clouds, winds, nor hailstones had 
ever disturbed it. 

The old porter of the Elder, one of the 
quaintest specimens of a jolly old English- 
man, a regular "■ old King Cole," came in 
to light our lamps. I asked him how soon 
the ship would leave Nanaimo. He gave 
a ready reply, " At half past ten ma'm." 



LEAVING NAN A I MO. 85 

Then with a sidelong glance at me from 
his queer little eyes, he added, " I don' 
know, ma'm, that may be twelve at noon to- 
morrow, ma'm." The information was so 
definite that we concluded the pilot had 
not arrived, and went to bed. 

April 27. When we awoke this morn- 
ing we found the ship as motionless as the 
wharf to which she was moored. The 
pilot had not come, and although all things 
were ready, in fact had been waiting for 
more than thirty-six hours for a start, we 
were compelled by regulations to await his 
coming. 

We fare remarkably well upon ship- 
board. At breakfast, lunch, and dinner, 
there is a profuse variety of well-cooked 
food ; never a table yet without six or more 
kinds of meat. 

At 1. 1 5 p. M. the G. W. Elder cast its 
hawsers and we departed from Nanaimo, 
after a delay at her wharves of sixty hours. 
We went out of the harbor in a delicious 
flood of sunshine, and under a cloudless sky. 
The scenes of quiet beauty which had in a 
measure compensated us for so long de- 
tention on our voyage were left behind. 
Should we return to our moorings to-mor- 



S6 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

row, they would never look the same to us, 
so much depends upon the conditions un- 
der which one sees the snow-capped moun- 
tains which rise all along these western 
shores. The play of lights and shadows 
upon their lofty sides and summits is so 
capricious, that they seem constantly to be 
changing in their aspect as we voyage by 
them. The same is true of the water, 
whether it is bluer than the sky above, or 
cold and steely gray, or black as ebony 
with a fitful purplish gleam flashing out 
from its dark depths. 

The Coast Mountains rose high and 
beautiful beyond the lower heights and 
steep bold shores upon our right. They 
were all more or less snow-clad. The 
atmosphere was clear, and the mountains 
were clean-cut and shone like crystals, 
shading from dark blue to pearl and white. 
They were of all shapes, but the peaked 
forms prevailed upon the continental shore, 
while those upon Vancouver were more 
wedge and dome-shaped ; not so high or 
thickly covered with snow, as the stately 
Olympian Mountains, which they some- 
what resemble. 

The Coast Mountains were exceedingly 



JOHNSTONE STRAIT. 8/ 

fascinating. Sometimes their snowy sides 
would be soft and fluffy as a fleecy cloud, 
then they would shoot up in obelisks and 
sharp spires, white as marble ; sometimes 
notched and jagged like the teeth of a worn- 
out saw, then pointed, triangular, and regu- 
lar as a pyramid. 

This succession of islands, wooded shores, 
and unbroken procession of snowy moun- 
tains continued upon our right and left as 
we passed through the Gulf of Georgia un- 
til we came to the narrow passage, John- 
stone Strait, which leads on to Queen 
Charlotte Sound. This strait is literally 
crowded full of islands, and the ship's way 
winds between them and Vancouver's Is- 
land for many miles. Long, narrow, and 
intricate, it is safe only to experienced nav- 
igators and pilots. We arrived at Sey- 
mour Narrows, the entrance to Johnston, 
at seven o'clock in the evening. The tide 
was ebb, and the passage all the more dif- 
ficult. We watched our progress for an 
hour, upon the deck. The water heaps 
and swirls in swift currents and whirlpools 
which look black and threatening. Some- 
times the fury of the tides proves too much 
for the safety of the vessel in their cruel 



8S PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

grasp. Several large ships have been over- 
come by these whirlpools and dashed to de- 
struction upon the hidden rocks beneath 
them. It is only at the entrance of this 
strait, however, where the passage is so per- 
ilous. Our ship made the passage without 
any marvellous incident to record, but 
hardly a loud word was spoken upon deck 
by passengers or crew until we were safely 
through it. Captain Hunter told us that 
he " hardly dared to breathe throughout the 
passage." 

This was the first time an iron steamer 
had plied these waters, and the George W. 
Elder with her freight drew seventeen feet 
of water. No ship of over nine feet draught 
had ever ventured here before. 

We retired and slept as soundly as if 
"sailing on a sea of balm." 

April 28. We entered Queen Charlotte 
Sound some time in the night. The ship is 
rolling from side to side upon the heavy 
swell of the ocean. Still the mountains 
lead on in their continuous march. First 
the brown heaving sea, then the dark low 
reaches of shrubby islands ; next the hills, 
three successive lines rising one above 
another, lapping and interlocking their 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND. 89 

deep gloomy bases, and beyond and high 
above them all, the ever varying but never 
broken line of mountains, grim and hoary 
in the gray morning light. 

It rained during the night, and dark No- 
vember-like clouds hung over the moun- 
tains, casting a purplish gloom about their 
lofty peaks, which was weird but fascinat- 
ing. White mists rose from the dark re- 
cesses among the hills, and swept grace- 
fully upward toward their summits. We 
were several hours crossing Queen Char- 
lotte Sound, our ship bowing graciously 
this side and that, all the while. Upon our 
left was the broad Pacific, nothing but one 
wide expanse of ocean between us and the 
continent of Asia. In spite of the rolling 
of the ship, everybody came to the break- 
fast-table and ate heartily. Soon after we 
passed from Queen Charlotte into Fitz- 
Hugh Sound, a much more sheltered, nar- 
row channel. The islands are so near 
upon both sides that we can easily admire 
and study them. Every one is planted 
upon a firm perpendicular wall, which rises 
but little above the surface of the water at 
its flow. How deep they extend into the 
depths below, we cannot know, except in 



90 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

those bays which have been sounded. We 
are told that these passes are many of 
them measureless to the plummet, but such 
numbers as fall between two and three 
thousand feet are given for the depths of 
some which have been sounded. The wa- 
ter undulates gently, as soon as we come 
within the shelter of the outward lying is- 
lands, and our ship moves on with a steady 
and stately motion. 

We had Calvert Island upon our left, 
and soon came in sight of our first water- 
fall. We were all delighted, and watched 
intently its rapid pulsing flow, as it leaped 
wildly down from steep to steep, all broken 
into foam, from the white mountain top, 
three thousand feet above, to the sea below. 
The small islands are numerous on the 
right, and a large coast peninsula sets 
down among them, abrupt and high, pro- 
jecting its sharp headlands into the chan- 
nel quite near to us, and then receding, 
narrow, dark inlets reach back into the 
continent among fir-covered hills ; while 
beyond and high above all is the ever 
white serrated line of the lofty Coast 
Mountains, always the same mighty bar- 
rier of our western shore. 



PASSING THE COAST MOUNTAINS. 9 1 

The waters broaden between Calvert 
and Hunter's Islands, and we saw a large 
whale oceanward, floating like a great black 
log, sinking beneath the surface and ap- 
pearing at intervals, until lost to sight by 
distance. 

As we passed into the channel between 
Hunter's Island and the continent, a 
mighty mountain ridge stretched its huge 
length beside the shore, ribbed, like a gi- 
gantic mastodon, by sharp ledges of gray, 
rock, which extended at regular distances 
from the line of its high humped back far 
down its sides, marked by unbroken drifts 
of snow. 

The mountains now come nearer to the 
sea, .and the small, low islands have given 
place to mountain peaks, which stand upon 
the water above their submerged founda- 
tions, and bristle like sentinels in front of 
the loftier range upon the shore. Many of 
the trees are blasted and broken, but be- 
tween their stark trunks the ground is 
thickly set with a young growth from ten 
to fifteen feet in height. The decayed 
trees are neither large nor tall, but straight 
as an arrow. The soil is shallow, the trees 
attain a certain growth or age, then die 



92 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

and fall to the ground, their places being 
constantly supplied by a new growth which 
in its turn follows them. The ground is so 
strewn with the fallen trunks, crossed and 
piled upon each other, that it is almost an 
impossible thing to traverse it. Halfway 
up the dark side of a mound-like height — 
whose grizzly level top no doubt enfolds a 
crater lake — there shone out a gleam from 
a waterfall, leaping down a high precipice ; 
its course below was lost behind the thick 
forests about it. 

The gulls are numerous and very social. 
A stick of floating driftwood has fifteen 
white gulls sitting upon it. They look 
much like a great string of pearls, a neck- 
lace for some sea monster, perhaps. 

We often see the pretty little quaker 
birds, Mother Carey's chickens, fluttering 
along in flocks. There are several sports- 
men on shipboard who try to shoot the 
flying gulls, wild loons, and ducks, all of 
which are very abundant here. I hope they 
will spare their ammunition upon Mother 
Carey's chickens, in deference to the old 
superstition, if nothing else will prevail 
against such wanton sport. 

Far up on the side of another dark 



PASSING THE COAST MOUNTAINS. 93 

mountain are two white waterfalls, leaping 
hundreds of feet from one steep to another, 
down the green mountain wall ; now hid- 
ing and then flashing out ; sometimes like 
broad white ribbons, when they flow over 
the smooth surface of black rock, and then 
curving in and out around obstructing 
boulders, they bound along in beautiful 
cascades until they lose themselves in the 
blue waters of the sea. 

Now from the solemn quiet of the shore 
a bark canoe shoots out upon the waters. 
It glides along under the shadow of the 
firs, almost like a painted boat on canvas. 
In the canoe sit two Indian fishers, as silent 
and motionless as the dark trees above 
them. 

The day thus far has been a cloudy one, 
white clouds have settled into the passes 
of the mountains and a blue misty haze is 
over all. 

Now an immense mound-like hill — we 
should call it a mountain in New England 
— rises from the sea, wooded from base 
to top with a large, thick forest growth. 
From a little scooped-out level on the 
shore at its base there rolls up a column 
of blue smoke. We try in vain to get a 



94 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

glimpse of the Indian hut from whence it 
comes, but it is too snugly hidden among a 
thick growth of small cedar-trees. 

Far back, towering higher than any we 
have before seen, stands a ghostly giant of 
the skies. Nearer are domes and pyramids, 
peaks and roofs so joined and complicated 
in their arrangement that no human archi- 
tect could decipher their angles or imitate 
their combinations. These are all com- 
pletely and densely covered with stately 
evergreen forests, grizzled with frost and 
snow. 

It seemed to us at first that some of 
these mountains should have definite 
names ; but now we realize their name is 
Legion ; as well might we count the stones 
in the foundations of these shores, as to 
number the mountain heights which stand 
above them. 

We pass between a succession of small 
islands and note each one as if we had 
never seen its like before. They are alike 
in many respects, yet each has its peculiar 
charm and some distinguishing charac- 
teristic. 

Now is repeated the last or previous 
scene with a lesser elevation. Domes, 



PASSING THE COAST MOUNTAINS. 95 

peaks, and gabled roofs, heaped and 
crowded, yet each one individually dis- 
tinct upon its own portion of a level base. 
Every one uniformly green from top to 
bottom, except a pyramid which stands 
upon the edge of the shore. This is an 
immense mass of volcanic rock and granite 
boulders welded together, looking firm and 
hard as adamant. It is of much more re- 
cent origin than the surrounding heights, 
and resembles Muir Mountain near Shasta 
in its color and general aspect. 

At 11.30 A. M. we approached a narrow 
passage where the shores upon our right 
and left seemed continuous, and mountains 
greeted mountains in friendly grasp before 
us. Every color of the shore departed as 
we made the passage at the head of Hun- 
ter's Island at a sharp angle, and looked 
westward across a more open sea toward 
Bardswell group of islands. The water 
was a pearl-gray color, and beyond it was 
the misty purphng blue and white of moun- 
tains piled on mountains in wild, enchant- 
ing beauty. 

Again the shores approach so near that 
we might measure every stone and inlet 
of the sea, among their mossy fissures. 



96 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

Here come a multitude of small, rocky- 
islets. One resembles an enormous turtle ; 
the scales are black stone regularly creased 
and wrinkled, and polished by the friction 
of the waves. Upon another stands a great 
bald eagle, emblem of our country, yet 
these are British waters. His white head 
shines like a ball of snow above his dark 
gray plumage. He stands almost as erect 
as a man, motionless and fearless, not 
more than twenty rods away, while our 
ship passes by and leaves him undisturbed. 

The rocky edge of the shore is notched 
by small regular recesses, just wide enough 
to afford safe moorings for Indian canoes, 
as if they were purposely designed by their 
Great Architect for the convenience of the 
dwellers in these solitary haunts of nature. 

At 12.45 we went upon deck to look at 
the Indian village Bella Bella, which is a 
Hudson's Bay trading post. It is situated 
upon a cleared space of a few acres on a 
small, rounded bend of the shore, and con- 
tains about seventy-five frame houses and 
a few fish-houses. There are some very 
neat English-looking cottages with a few 
small gardens in front, otherwise there 
are no signs of cultivation. A little dis- 



PASSING THE COAST MOUNTAINS. 97 

tance beyond the village, so close however 
as to seem a part of it, is a burial-place, 
where are English graves noted by small 
marble tablets, and among them are the 
graves of Indians who probably had been 
christianized by the missionaries stationed 
there. 

Across the Lama Passage, upon the con- 
tinent opposite, is the old Indian burial- 
place ; a wild and romantic spot, close upon 
the edge of the water. Great boulders of 
fantastic shapes stand all about, draped 
with loose, thick mosses, so highly colored 
and mixed with various tints of green as 
to challenge an artist's cunning to repro- 
duce their harmonious combinations. The 
trees are tall and sombre, and stand as 
nature planted them, where others of their 
kind have stood and fallen and decayed in 
the ages gone before. 

The chiefs and mighty warriors of the 
tribes are cremated after death, and their 
ashes are placed in rude boxes and then 
preserved in larger box -like receptacles. 
Sometimes these are elevated upon posts 
planted firmly in the ground, but oftener 
they are placed upon the ground, and al- 
ways near the houses where the chiefs 



98 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

have lived. Rude painted figures and In- 
dian hieroglyphics embellish the sides of 
these receptacles and serve as epitaphs. 
The poor and despised of the tribe, or those 
who practise witchcraft, are thrown into 
the sea to be food for fishes, or left upon 
the land to be devoured by wild beasts and 
birds. They are not considered worthy to 
be burned. 

The dead bodies of the Shamans, sor- 
cerers or medicine men, who really are the 
controlling spirits of the tribes, are placed 
within the box-like tombs and elevated ten 
or fifteen feet above the ground upon posts. 
These funeral boxes on the shore of Lama 
Passage were doubtless the repositories 
of the dead sorcerers of the Bella Bella 
tribes. 

By the aid of our field-glass we could 
distinguish the grotesque outlines of vari- 
ous hideous combinations of brutes and 
human beings, eagles, crows, beasts, and 
frogs, which were rudely drawn in red and 
yellow paints upon the sides of these burial 
boxes. 

Upon one was the strange figure of a 
creature with the head of a frog and the 
legs of an Indian, Another was curiously 



PASSING THE COAST MOUNTAINS. 99 

crossed with red and yellow, and a totem 
board was nailed to one side, upon which 
were many different signs and images, all 
significant of bravery and superior power 
to an Indian's understanding, but of course 
they were Greek to ours. 

Captain Hunter had no business at this 
British port, other than to receive permis- 
sion to pass, which required but a few min- 
utes, — and we went on our way between 
the wild shores overhung by mountains, 
some blue and wood-covered, and some 
very grizzly with forests of dead trees en- 
tirely divested of all verdure and often of 
their bark. These dead forests stand like 
useless legions of condemned creatures 
waiting for the welcome blast of wind 
which shall overthrow and lay them down 
to their decay. 

Now we pass by lovely inlets of the sea 
which reach far away among the passes of 
the green-walled mountains, and call to 
mind the shining ways leading up to the 
" Palace Beautiful," which Bunyan pictures 
in his "Pilgrim's Progress." 

The northern portion of Bardswell group 
is low, and the winds from the ocean have 
free course over the poor little gale-swept 



lOO PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

isles. The trees are all small, of a pale 
yellowish green hue and much broken by 
winds and decay. Some of the smallest 
islands have scarcely a tint of green upon 
them excepting that of the thick mosses 
which cover the stones. They bristle all 
over with dead, branchless and barkless 
trees, white and shining like quills upon a 
porcupine. Small islets, desolate as the 
salt spray can make them, are fenced all 
around by lines of driftwood heaped upon 
them by the waves. They look like index 
fingers emphasizing the general air of deso- 
late wildness of this approach to Millbank 
Sound, which we enter at 2. 1 5 p. m. 

The islands shoreward are more and 
more rocky and sterile, and now they are 
gray and hard indeed. The ocean beats 
upon their rocky shores and dashes its 
spray high over their pale and devastated 
forests. The ship rolls from side to side 
in the heavy swells, and we suspend our 
observations until our advent into calmer 
waters. 

We entered Finlayson's Channel, and 
again the scenes were completely changed. 
The deep broad channel flows like a noble 
river between mountainous hills, densely 



IN FINLAYSON'S CHANNEL. lOI 

timbered to their tops from the Hne of 
rock at the water's edge. The fir-trees 
are green and vigorous, covering the hills 
uniformly, except where broad surfaces of 
black slate, perpendicular for fifty or a hun- 
dred feet, are draped with many -tinted 
mosses and embossed with small shapely 
evergreen trees which find rootage in their 
hidden fissures, and from which they bend 
over the dizzy steep below. Close be- 
hind the hills rise the high green moun- 
tains', and back of these, far higher still, 
shine out the snow-crowned peaks of the 
inland mountains. From these massive 
green domes there flow down lovely water- 
falls. Some shoot downward in a course 
almost as straight as that of an arrow from 
its bow. Others curve in and out, hiding 
and disclosing themselves like flashes of 
sunshine among the heavy shadows of the 
trees. Now there falls a large stream over 
a rock parapet upon the very top of a 
mountain, where there is probably a reser- 
voir for the melting snows of greater 
heights beyond. It comes foaming and 
leaping throughout its whole course, 
straight down the mountain side, in beau- 
tiful cascades, and rushes with a wild 



I02 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

abandon, as if in haste to hide its buoyant 
Hfe within the solemn cloisters of the sea. 
Now is seen a multitude of little streams 
which streak the mountain sides like silver. 
All else in Nature seems hushed, and listen- 
ing to the dreamy, wave-like lullaby which 
comes from the "Voices of the Waterfall." 

The skies are still leaden, and occasional 
light showers dimple the placid water, 
which flows like a broad river between 
these mountain shores. The clouds trail 
their filmy folds and almost hide the white 
cascades from our sight. The fascination 
of this northern scenery, whether it be in 
sunshine or in shadow, is so absorbing that 
we try to see it all, and during the day 
there is but little upon sea or shore that 
escapes our observation. But there are so 
many novel and wonderful scenes so like, 
and yet so unlike, that I can hardly help 
repeating similar impressions. I try to 
note, for the pleasure of those who cannot 
see and enjoy with us, all that is marvellous 
in this inland voyage to Alaska. 

Upon our right the mountains part, and 
a dark and romantic fiord sets up between 
them. Far down its glassy way there 
stands a lovely little island with a small 



IN FINLAYSON'S CHANNEL, 103 

islet upon either side, all dressed in green. 
They seem to rest upon the dark water of 
the fiord, as birds fold their wings and float 
upon the sea. At the entrance are two 
massive mountain pillars, which continue 
in high columnar walls upon both sides, 
far up the fiord. These fluted walls, in 
the clear perspective, diminish in height, 
approach each other and meet, embracing 
the lovely islands and deepening the shad- 
ows about them, until the waters are black 
as ebony. What looked like a mountain 
pillar resolved itself into a perfect pyra- 
mid as we advanced upon it. Its sides are 
so thickly set with firs that no shaven 
hedge ever presented a more unbroken 
surface to an observing . eye than did that 
majestic, natural pyramid. It was a marvel 
of elegance and stately grandeur. As we 
passed by it we took a backward look at 
its wondrous beauty, and we beheld it a 
perfect dome in shape, with no sign of line 
or angle which had before been as sharply 
defined as are those of the Pyramids of 
Egypt. This we called the Cathedral Moun- 
tain, and by that name we shall always 
keep it in memory. 

It is now four o'clock p. m., when we 



I04 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

enter a narrow passage along the shore of 
Princess Royal Island. 

Nine o'clock p. m. Since we came into 
the upper half of Finlayson's Channel, 
which is known as Graham and Fraser's 
Reaches, we have been treated to a more 
wonderful exhibition of mountain grandeur 
and beautiful cascades and waterfalls than 
any which have preceded them. How can 
I describe these sights, and still have words 
for the greater wonders which may follow 
them ! Happily our powers of apprecia- 
tion are capable of infinite expansion, and 
we have been able to meet the demands of 
every new occasion with increased enjoy- 
ment ; but words have their limitations in 
my vocabulary. Only this can I say : mul- 
tiply and add threefold to all I have said of 
the former, and you may have some idea 
of these last. They have been more glori- 
ously lovely than anything our imaginations 
had ever conceived. Some of them have 
swept down from heights of 3000 feet and 
more to the waters of the sea, but a few 
rods distant from our ship's keel. The reso- 
nance of their fall has drowned all sounds 
belonging to our ship, and filled the spaces 
about us with their musical chimes and re- 



IN FINLAYSON'S CHANNEL. 105 

spending echoes. Some we called moun- 
tain torrents ; and some have spread their 
waters and fallen from dizzy heights and 
lesser precipices in successive sheets of 
gauze-like beauty. One, far toward a white 
mountain top, seemed to divide and double 
itself backward, like the graceful loopings 
of a broad ribbon, then it united again and 
dropped in soft cascades until it reached 
the last steep descent, where it expanded 
into a broad silvery veil and swept grace- 
fully down, losing its whiteness in the 
deep blue of the channel below. This we 
called " the bridal veil." At another place 
the stream flowed out from some mountain 
lake not far inland. We could look back 
under the shadows of the trees drooping 
over it and see the smooth mountain water, 
clear as the crystals from whence it came, 
moving silently toward the ledgy shore. 
In an instant it broke into a feathery foam 
as it dashed over the uneven surface of the 
ledge in many lovely cascades, which lost 
themselves and their boisterous glee in the 
depths and silences of the sea. 

Again we saw far up toward the top of a 
high mountain a fine large cascade, prom- 
ising a torrent in its descent, which was 



I06 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

not seen again until we had passed around 
a spur of the same mountain, when there 
came the full cascade from under a perfect 
arch of intermingling cedars, and with one 
bound it too leaped into the sea. 

Were I to number all the waterfalls and 
all the lofty mountains which have so de- 
lighted our eyes, my journal would be filled 
with repetitions to the ears of one whose 
eyes have never seen them. But in our 
memories they remain ; 

*' A thing of beauty is a joy forever." 



IV. 

FROM DIXON's entrance TO JUNEAU. 

April 29. The morning was aark and 
rainy. The shore of the continent was 
some miles distant, but through the mist 
of the falling rain we could witness the 
constant march of the white-capped peaks 
of the mountains. Nothing was visible 
oceanward but the wide spaces of the sea. 
Our ship was strangely steady in her mo- 
tion, and for nearly an hour we glided on 
through the gray mist before we came 
again among the islands. 

We were approaching Fort Tongas, hav- 
ing made the passage of Grenville Chan- 
nel during the night. I strained my eyes 
to see Mount McNiel, near to Fort Simp- 
son, in British Columbia, which we passed 
in the early dawn. At eight o'clock a. m. 
we stopped before Fort Tongas, the south- 
ernmost white settlement in Alaska. We 
were now in Alaskan waters opposite to 



I08 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

Dixon's Entrance, at which place, Captain 
Hunter told us, we were but ten days dis- 
tant from Japan. There was no especial 
business to detain us here, merely an offi- 
cial recognition, as we had come through 
British waters to our own again. 

Fort Tongas is upon a peninsula of the 
continent, and has about a dozen small 
houses, including the long low government 
building, from which floats " the stars and 
stripes." Business accomplished, we took 
a turn oceanward to avoid the small rocky 
islands alongshore, and our steamer was 
once more rolling and ploughing her way 
through the heavy seas which beat in at 
Dixon's Entrance from the Pacific Ocean. 
The rain still poured down upon our deck, 
and there was nothing but the wide, wide 
sea to look upon. I took the time to write 
up my journal from the sketchy notes of 
the previous day. Everybody seemed to 
recognize that it was the Sabbath, by a 
universal expression of drowsiness. 

At noon we arrived at Tongas Narrows, 
and, through a short passage from the 
open sea between pretty islands and the 
shore, we came to Tongas Fish Canneries, 
where we remained several hours, taking 



TONGAS FISH CANNERIES. 1 09 

and delivering freight of various kinds. 
Here there is a large board structure where 
the work of canning, during the salmon 
season, is carried on quite extensively. 
There are several small dwelling-houses 
and camps about it, for the use of the 
laborers. One small board cottage, pic- 
turesquely situated upon a little knoll, in 
part actually overhangs the water. The 
study of foliage around it is delightfully 
charming. There are small green fir-trees 
intermixed with low shrubs, some bright 
and some dry and withered ; but not a leaf 
or dry twig of any kind seems superfluous, 
not one could be spared from the lovely 
grouping of the whole. The lichens, upon 
the stones and an old decaying stump, 
with their soft harmonious tints, are so 
many added graces. 

Just before the door of this rural cot, 
and almost hidden by the thick foliage, 
stands a totem pole, the first we have seen ; 
but not a real carved totem pole, such as 
we hope to see farther north. This one 
was highly decorated with painted repre- 
sentations of frogs and other animals. By 
the aid of a good glass, we saw the frogs 
distinctly, but the rest were too much hid- 



no PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

den by the trees for us to discern them 
clearly. There is a pretty lake behind the 
settlement, fed by mountain torrents, 
which I saw hanging like white streamers 
all along the mountain sides. One, like 
a broad web of white silk, hung limp 
and apparently motionless a thousand feet 
above the lake. Here the salmon swarm 
to deposit their spawn in fresh water, and 
here the Indian fishers slay them by thou- 
sands for the cannery. They gather in 
such great multitudes at these fresh-water 
outlets to the sea, and crowd so thickly 
upon each other, that the fishers take them 
out in baskets used as scoops. It is rain- 
ing, and we cannot go on shore. A few of 
the gentlemen have gone, but the majority 
remain on deck. 

Dr. Sheldon Jackson, U. S. School Com- 
missioner in Alaska, came on board at 
Tongas Cannery, bringing with him thir- 
ty-seven bright Indian boys. They are 
from a settlement near Tongas, made by 
those natives who emigrated a few years 
ago from Metlahkatlah, B. C, to Alaska, 
under the patronage of Dr. Duncan. We 
have already on shipboard one hundred 
and fifty Chinamen, about sixty cabin pas- 




TOTEM POLES. 



THE METLAHKATLAH INDIANS. Ill 

sengers, miners, adventurers, etc., besides 
Mrs. Willard and ourselves. Fort Tongas 
contributed to our number a custom of- 
ficer, to make sure we carry nothing con- 
traband between our own and British 
ports. Another boat comes laden with 
two veritable old totem poles, which are 
covered with a green mould and show evi- 
dence of great age, but yet their grotesque 
carvings are well defined, and legibly in- 
form us of brave chieftains who bore the 
proud titles of '' The Crow," " The Bear," 
''The Whale," etc. These old totem 
poles are being taken to the Museum of 
ancient Indian relics at Sitka, by Dr. Shel- 
don Jackson, for preservation. The days 
of totem poles are over ; for as the Alas- 
kans advance in civilization, the old-time 
customs of their tribes are abandoned. A 
pretty steam launch, "The Astoria," is ply- 
ing back and forth between our steamer 
and the shore. It is probably the govern- 
ment launch stationed at Fort Tongas, 
which flits about among these wild little 
islands to maintain in the sight and minds 
of the Alaskans a sense of the omnipres- 
ence of our great government, which is ne- 
ce'ssaryfor the safety of the white people 
among them. 



112 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

The Metlahkatlah boys are the sons of 
those Indians who came into southeastern 
Alaska from Metkihkatlah, B. C, where 
they were rapidly learning the arts and 
customs of civilization under the direction 
of Dr. Duncan. They lived in comfortable 
houses, cultivated the soil, and dressed like 
ordinary citizens. They had good schools, 
where their children were all taught to 
read and write, the elements of arithmetic, 
and such other branches of education as 
would be beneficial to them in their con- 
dition. They were also taught vocal and 
instrumental music, and some of the boys 
were good performers upon the piano and 
various stringed instruments. They had 
industrial schools, wherein the various 
trades were taught to the boys, and sewing, 
housekeeping, etc., to the girls. They be- 
lieve in Dr. Duncan implicitly, and no 
doubt their faith in his authority had much 
to do with their advancement toward a civ- 
ilized life. The authority of Dr. Duncan 
in church affairs was somewhat superseded 
by the sending to them of a bishop to take 
charge of their religious instruction, at 
which the Indians revolted, preferring the 
authority of Dr. Duncan over them in all 



THE METLAHKATLAH INDIANS. II3 

things. They were in such a state of in- 
subordination, that, fearing to witness a 
loss of all his labors among them, he fa- 
vored their desire to emigrate to Alaska, 
and determined to go with them. The na- 
tives began to take down their houses and 
transport them with their other posses- 
sions across Dixon's Entrance in their ca- 
noes to Alaska, when an injunction was 
placed upon tfie removal of their houses by 
the English authorities, upon which they 
deserted their homes, and all departed from 
British Columbia. No sooner had they es- 
tablished themselves upon our soil, than 
they proceeded to hoist the American flag 
and declare themselves citizens of the 
United States. They are proud of the 
honor, and are trying to maintain their 
dignity in the new role they have taken. 
Already they have a neat and flourishing 
village ; they cultivate the land about them 
and earn for themselves a good subsistence, 
clothing themselves like ordinary citizens 
of the country of their adoption. 

They keep the Sabbath scrupulously. 
The Metlahkatlah boys gave us a concert 
on the deck of the Elder, and after singing 
various hymns with good effect, Dr. Jackson 



114 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

asked if they could favor us with some 
songs. Oue of them, the son of the Met- 
lahkatlah chief, replied, " No, sir ; we only 
sing sacred music." 

They had an organized band of musicians 
among them, but as the instruments upon 
which they were accustomed to perform 
belonged to their school, Dr. Jackson bor- 
rowed several pieces for the voyage at 
Fort Wrangell, to be returned on our home- 
ward passage. 

When the totem poles were landed at 
Sitka there was no means of conveying 
them to the Museum. Dr. Jackson ar- 
ranged to load them upon some old wheels 
to which was attached a long rope, and 
calling upon his mission boys to join the 
Metlahkatlahs — numbering in all one hun- 
dred and seven — he ordered them to form 
a procession upon the rope, and the band 
to strike up its music. The boys entered 
into the spirit of the occasion with a will, 
and the old totems made a sort of trium- 
phal entrance into Sitka, and were taken 
to the Museum and placed in position, 
where they will probably long remain a 
spectacle for the curious and a memorial of 
the ancient customs of the native Alaskans. 



A WONDERFUL SIGHT. II5 

Past four o'clock p. m. It is raining fast, 
and still our ship lies off shore. We have 
left a squad of Chinamen here to work in 
the cannery, and have sent on shore a large 
amount of freight for the carrying on of 
their business — empty cans, sheets of tin, 
lumber, and provisions. We were about to 
leave Tongas Cannery, and the finest sight 
of all had not been seen. Upon a moun- 
tain, 3500 feet high, not three miles distant 
from us, was a cataract indeed. We were 
loaned, by Mr. Hammond, a remarkably 
fine glass, the use of which contributed in 
a large measure to our appreciation and 
enjoyment of the wondrous sights of our 
voyage. By the aid of this glass the cat- 
aract was brought so near to our obser- 
vation that distance seemed literally to be 
annihilated. 

It appeared to leap from a huge ledge, 
quite near to the summit of the mountain, 
over which hung an enormous bank of 
snow. Straight as the course of an arrow 
it rushed down the mountain side ; its 
width uniform, and about fifty feet, until 
it came near to the bottom, when it wi- 
dened to a hundred, it might be more, and 
in one broad sheet was lost to our sight in 



Il6 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

the vale below. The lake which received 
it was hidden by the intervening surface. 
It is but one of the thousand beautiful 
sights which are to be seen in this " Won- 
derland of America," 

April 30. We arrived at Loring, on 
Revilla Gigedo Island, last night, and cast 
anchor. The captain had on board freight 
for the Salmon Cannery and Chinamen for 
its operation. 

Loring is not so picturesquely situated 
as Tongas, but it is by no means wanting 
in natural attractions. It has its high, 
green, and snow -tipped mountains, its 
lovely inland lakes, and its little fleet of 
islets off-shore, any one of which would be 
a marvel of beauty in our eastern waters. 

The boom of the ship's gun last night 
was a signal which brought out several 
canoes from the shore to greet us. In one, 
occupied by an Indian and his boy, lay a 
large salmon weighing fifty pounds, for 
which he demanded one dollar and fifty 
cents. Our steward said "too much," and 
the Indian sat motionless and waited for 
his price. Our last look from the deck at 
night discovered him still loitering and 
waiting ; the salmon, a noble specimen of 



SCENES NEAR LOR INC. 11/ 

his kind, was in the boat. A gentleman re- 
turning from the shore presented me with 
an eagle's claw, freshly cut from the "fierce 
gray bird,*' which I shall carry home as a 
remembrance of Loring. As I walked on 
the deck early this morning, I listened to 
the sounds which came from the mountains 
and the sea. Far up in the dense gloom 
of the forest I heard the shrill scream of 
an eagle. Along the shore a flock of crows 
or ravens came cawing from their roost- 
ing places for their morning meal of offal 
from the fishing-boats. A meagre-looking 
dog was before them, satisfying his hunger 
upon the fare they sought. With a rush 
and vigorous flapping of their wings, the 
crows drove the dog skulking to a house 
near by, and then leisurely enjoyed their 
feast. Upon the other side of the ship the 
gulls were lazily flapping by, with keen 
eyes on the lookout for stray crumbs of 
waste from the ship's cook, who was busily 
pounding and beating in preparation for 
our breakfast. 

Floating cosily along in pairs and squad- 
rons were divers and wild ducks, and an 
occasional quack from the latter told that 
they too were in search of a morning meal. 



Il8 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

At half-past six in the morning we weighed 
anchor and left Loring behind us. 

Soon after breakfast we saw an Indian 
burial-place upon the island shore. There 
were small boxlike houses, painted white, 
and about as large as the winter cover 
to our fountain, and one was surmounted 
by a cross. These, unlike those of Bella 
Bella, stood upon the ground, and con- 
tained the smaller boxes or funeral urns 
in which were deposited the ashes of their 
dead chiefs and braves. 

While we were looking at the graves, a 
large blue heron flew over from shore to 
shore, his long legs stretched out below 
him as if he walked the air. A great bald- 
eagle started out from the forest on our 
left and flapped his broad, dark wings over 
our heads, toward the opposite shore. His 
plumage looked black as a raven's. A 
gentleman near by us remarked ''he would 
measure nine feet from tip to tip." 

For the first time since we left Na- 
naimo, we saw this morning a level bit of 
country. After we left Loring we came to 
a tract of level area of nearly a hundred 
acres at the base of the hills, which for a 
novelty were farther inland. It was cov- 



IN YAAS BAY. II9 

ered with a growth of small cedars. As 
we looked out over it we mistook these 
trees for a rank growth of Alaskan reeds. 
Vegetation here is so full of surprises that 
we may well be pardoned for the mistake. 

It was the only glimpse of land which 
might be cleared and cultivated to any ex- 
tent, provided the soil is sufficient to sup- 
port vegetation, which we have seen. The 
fir and cedar trees seem almost like para- 
sites upon the rocks from which they rise. 
We have seen them nearly a foot in diam- 
eter growing on the top of rocks ten or 
twelve feet high, and not over three or four 
feet square at the top. 

Dr. Jackson found quite a large tree 
growing on the top of one of the totem 
poles which he brought on board at Ton- 
gas. The pole was fifteen feet long and 
about two feet in diameter. Trees and all 
vegetation here must draw much of their 
nourishment from the moisture of the at- 
mosphere and the decayed mosses which 
seem always saturated with water. 

At a little past nine a. m. we again cast 
our anchor at another salmon cannery in 
Yaas Bay. This is a new enterprise, and 
we have brought large quantities of lumber 



I20 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

and other necessary things for its success- 
ful operation. Yaas Bay is another recess 
into the mountain coast of Revilla Gigedo, 
north of Loring. This island is a large 
and extremely mountainous tract of our 
coast country, between two river-like arms 
of the sea, which extend upon either side 
for more than a hundred and fifty miles in 
a northeasterly direction, flowing into each 
other at the northeastern extremity of the 
island. 

Revilla Gigedo is entirely covered by 
mountains, and its coast is penetrated by 
numerous bays and small inlets which reach 
back among the mountains and receive the 
overflow of the numberless small lakes, the 
reservoirs of the melting snows. The en- 
tire coast is bound by a band of rock ma- 
sonry, which in the regularity of its forma- 
tion is truly wonderful ; more especially in 
the perfect adjustment of this rock border 
to the innumerable recesses which are con- 
stantly occurring ; every angle, ever so 
small an indentation of the shore, being 
hemmed in by its unvarying border of rock 
masonry, not more than a few inches above 
high-water mark. 

We found Yaas Bay to be the most 



IM YAAS BAY. 12I 

charming and romantic place we have yet 
seen. It is not large but inexpressibly 
lovely. The mosses grow thick and soft 
above the rocks, glowing with every tint 
of green and gold and umber. Out of it 
spring the cedar-trees, not large, but lithe 
and straight as Nature can produce. Their 
foliage has a peculiar feathery appearance, 
and its color is very bright. They stand 
so close upon the shallow soil that the eye 
cannot penetrate more than two or three 
feet within their gloomy shades. The 
mountains rise immediately from the shore 
line, with no inch of margin or foothold for 
man or beast, with an ascent so steep that 
it looks to be perpendicular. 

The trees are so uniform that the faces 
of the mountains from shore to snow-line 
present the aspect of a shaven lawn. 

In some places these mountain walls 
are perpendicular to the water for one and 
two hundred feet. These broad, smooth 
surfaces are painted with mosses of lovely 
hues; and every crevice is a foothold for 
miniature cedars which shoot up and spread 
their feathery plumes against the dark gray 
rock. Nothing is raw or bare to the eye. 
Nature paints and drapes everything with 
such a soft and quiet harmony. 



122 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

To add to the completeness of the ro- 
mantic beauty of Yaas Bay, a large Indian 
canoe came out to us from the shore and 
remained stationary beside our ship for 
some time. An old Indian woman carried 
the laboring oar, another younger woman 
in the middle of the canoe held her papoose, 
wrapped in blankets, on her lap, with two 
little Indian children beside her. In the 
prow sat a fat young Indian girl, oar in 
hand, with which she gently and not un- 
gracefully moved the water. Just behind 
her was a round-faced Indian boy, whose 
oar was idle. His eyes were more to him 
just then than his hands could be, he was 
so eager to see all and everything about 
our ship. I took the field-glass for a closer 
look at them, when the old Indian with a 
vigorous stroke turned the canoe away, and 
they glided out of range of our glass. She 
cast a backward look at us as if she feared 
an evil eye had marked them all. 

The timber line in this latitude is about 
2700 feet. It is curious to notice how 
exactly that limit is preserved. The great 
snow peaks and spires and domes stand 
sheer against the blue sky in their immac- 
ulate whiteness, and look down upon the 



MO UNTA IN SCENER V. 1 2 3 

crowding hosts which clamber and cling to 
their rocky sides, seeming to say to them, 
"Thus far and no farther shalt thou come." 
It is no feeble, scattered growth that aspires 
to reach that icy barrier, but tall and stately 
trees lead bravely up the heights, their 
sharp spines bristling and fringing the 
white robes of the mighty giants above 
them. 

Some of these mountain tops are bare, 
black stone which stand out from the drifts 
of snow in grotesque shapes resembling 
beasts, and birds, and heads of awful 
gnomes and demons. 

We saw four great towering columns of 
black stone in a continuous line, like the 
fingers of a hand pointing upward, at a 
height of 4000 feet, against the sky. Their 
tops were heaped with cushions of snow. 
Their sides were so near to perpendicular 
that the snow lay in thin patches upon 
them, and ridges of the black rock stood 
out like ebony in strange, weird forms in 
bas-relief. 

Our ship was steaming up the strait of 
Revilla Gigedo still farther into the con- 
tinent, to Burroughs' Bay, one hundred and 
twenty miles off from the usual course of 



124 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

tourists to Alaska. We were approaching 
our destination for the day, and the sun 
had set upon the dark waters of the strait 
and the mountains along the shores. Still 
we lingered upon deck, hoping to catch a 
gleam of the sunset upon the far inland 
mountains, whose lofty summits were visi- 
ble to us through the broken columns of 
the lesser heights along the shores. Nearly 
,all had retired from their posts of observa- 
tion as the twilight settled deeper, and the 
shades grew black upon the silent waters. 
The mountains were more and more lofty 
as we advanced farther into the continent, 
and we began to feel a disappointment, 
when we saw the night coming down upon 
us, that we were not to see them in the 
light of the setting sun. 

At length we caught a gleam of bright- 
ness along the farther and upper edge of a 
distant peak. The sunset was upon its 
opposite side, and our position would not 
favor us. We too retired to the warmth of 
the saloon, for the evening began to grow 
chilly. It had long been sunset to us, but 
I kept watchful eyes upon the mountain 
tops. The ship's course was often chang- 
ing, and a happy turn around a headland 



BURROUGHS BAY. I 25 

brought US where the inland mountains 
were more plainly visible. 

The topmost pinnacle of all, a lofty 
height, shone like a golden flame against 
the dark background of the skies. The 
less elevated peaks stood in gloomy con- 
trast to the blazing beacon, which swept so 
high above that all who saw it were filled 
with admiration. And yet the rising and 
setting sun has illumined these heights 
and made them " beautiful as the gates of 
heaven " throughout the untold ages of the 
past. 

Gradually peak after peak and dome 
after dome, and at last all the white moun- 
tain sides which inclined to the west, were 
aflame with the glory of the sunset. Then 
came in view a long range of mountains 
which shared and bathed in that golden 
flood so abundantly poured upon them. 
The scene lasted for more than half an 
hour, the course of our ship seeming to be 
so ordered that we might behold it. It 
was eight o'clock in the evening when we 
passed around a projecting spur of a moun- 
tain, which seemed almost to bar our pro- 
gress, and going through a narrow passage 
we entered Burroughs Bay. 



126 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

This is the wildest and most arctic place 
which we have yet explored. The settle- 
ment contains nine small huts and shan- 
ties and a large new salmon cannery. The 
waters of the little bay are deep and dark, 
overshadowed upon all sides by what looks 
to be an unbroken wall of lofty mountains, 
green and solemn at their bases, but white 
with snow and ice upon their summits. 

A broad but shallow stream enters the 
bay at its northern side, winding around 
the base of a mountain from a lake be- 
hind it ; to all appearance from the deck of 
the ship, coming a full-grown river from 
beneath it. The passage through which 
we came is closed to view by the overlap- 
ping mountains ; thus Burroughs Bay is a 
bit of the ocean secluded from the world 
beyond, a great black onyx set in green 
and silver. It is so deep that no anchor 
has ever touched its bottom, and so small 
that our ship was tethered at either end by 
rope hawsers to the trees upon its banks. 

It is a wild and canny place, so remote 
from civilization that the Indians have 
been aggressive upon the whites, who have 
presumed to invade their fishing streams. 
They claim exclusive right to the fishery 



BURROUGHS BAY. 12/ 

of all the rivers of Alaska ; and when they 
dare they resist any encroachments made 
upon them. A posse of men was sent 
here last week by government officials to 
quell a disturbance, and to-night the chief 
offender of the Indians has been brought 
, on board ship for trial in Sitka. 

At eleven o'clock p. m. we saw a fine au- 
roral exhibition. At times there were the 
merry-dancers ; then beautiful iridescent 
arches, which spanned the north above 
the white domes of the mountains, and 
threw a long tunnel-shaped blazon of light 
upon the waters of the bay. When the 
long streamers shot up to the zenith their 
reflections were like shimmering paths of 
moonlight on the water. 

Once a narrow curtain of quivering 
light waved its fluted folds across the 
north from west to east, and left no sin- 
gle ray behind it. The lights were out, 
and the display was soon over. 

May I. I arose at four o'clock this 
morning to see the sunlight on the sum- 
mits of eleven high mountains which en- 
circle this little bay. The waterfalls upon 
these heights have scarcely begun their 
flow, but their courses are marked by snow 



128 PICTURESQUE ALASKA, 

and ice until near the bottom, when the 
water trickles in little streams from be- 
neath the frozen cascades above. 

One great oblong mountain lifts its level 
back high above the timber line. From 
the thick cushion of snow that covers it 
I can see the white tracks of the water- 
courses all along ; they are so numerous 
that they fringe the white mantle above, 
like silver cords. 

The waters in these inlets and channels 
are very deep. At Tongas Narrows, which 
is not more than one fourth of a mile in 
width, the depth is 2700 feet ; at Yaas 
Bay it is 1200 feet ; and these are the 
depths to be measured all along our way. 
Yosemite Valley has ceased to be the mar- 
vel that it was to us, when we consider 
what would be the elevation of some of 
these mountain peaks, from the bottom of 
these straits and bays, 

I recognize that we are not voyaging 
here among islands only, but rather that 
we are exploring the vast mountain region 
of our great northwestern coast, by means 
of these marvellous natural roadsteads. 
They reach far into the remote silences 
and solitudes of its mountain fastnesses — 



BURROUGHS BAY. 129 

discovering and ranking them among those 
other great wonders of our land, Niagara, 
Yosemite, and the Yellowstone. 

We saw no bird fly over Burroughs Bay 
this morning, and heard no sound but the 
lonely yelp of an Indian dog upon the 
shore. I felt a sense of pity for those who 
seek their fortunes in that isolated spot. I 
heartily wished them success in their labor 
and offered an unspoken prayer for their 
safety. We left Burroughs Bay at half 
past six A. M. on our return toward Loring. 

As we were in a wide expanse of the 
direct inland passage to Alaska, and past 
the entrance to Lorings Bay in Duke of 
Clarence Channel, a gentleman informed 
us that our ship was hailed by a fishing- 
boat. Immediately the ship slackened her 
speed. The captain was evidently satisfied 
that it was no call for succor, and the ship 
sprang to his bidding and regained her lost 
speed. The man in the boat rose from his 
oars and cried out lustily for **the Cap- 
tain," with no response ; then he cried for 
** the Mate " — and still no answer. 

Our ship had ploughed ahead, and the 
man swung his arms frantically about and 
shouted as his boat fell back into the wake 



I30 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

of the ship : " Throw a line ! throw a 
line ! " Red in the face, and still loudly 
shouting " throw a line," he dropped some 
way behind us, when a passenger remarked* 
** The man is insane," and we all expected 
to see him leap into the sea and perish 
before our eyes in a vain attempt to reach 
the ship. The captain relented, and the 
ship faltered as if weighing a doubt and at 
last stood quietly awaiting the approach of 
the boat. There was a boatman at the 
bow, and both men plied their oars with a 
will against time and tide, and soon came 
alongside the ship. 

The man who had so frantically hailed 
and gesticulated sprang up the side of our 
ship like a cat, and took passage from Lor- 
ing fisheries to Kasaan, while his compan- 
ion, the Indian boatman, rowed away alone. 
Finding that he had been left behind, his 
determined spirit was equal to the mishap, 
and the fisherman " had his will." 

Whenever we approach a settlement 
where we are to call and anchor, the ship 
fires a gun and blows a sonorous blast from 
the engine's whistle, and we always listen 
for the echoes. These vary greatly in dif- 
ferent places. Some are harsh and crack- 



KASAAN BAY. 1 3 1 

ling, as if the ship were exploding about us ; 
others rattle back and forth from hill to 
mountain, like quick reports of musketry. 

At Yaas Bay there was a startling echo 
from the mighty monarchs which sur- 
round it. They tossed the heavy sound 
back and forth with the force and reso- 
nance of the athletes that they are. 

As we approached Kasaan we were told 
by Captain Hunter to look out for the 
echo, for he had loaded the gun with a 
double charge for our benefit. 

Kasaan is an Indian village at the head 
of Kasaan Bay, an inlet into Prince of 
Wales Island which reaches quite halfway 
across it toward its western shore. It is 
•these voyages inland which have given us 
an opportunity to know so much more of 
the general configuration of these coasts 
and mountains than we could possibly ob- 
tain in the ordinary tourist's voyage to 
Alaska. Prince of Wales Island, although 
mountainous, does not present to us such 
scenes of lofty grandeur as those nearer to 
the continent, and there is a difference in 
their shores. Although this island is walled 
about with the same firm masonry, yet 
there is a margin between it and the hills 



132 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

and mountains. Upon these level spaces 
the Indians cultivate potatoes, not only for 
their own use, but for markets on other is- 
lands and in northern towns. The Indians 
all along the coast of Alaska are Thlin- 
kets, but those upon Prince of Wales take 
the special name of Hydah Indians. They 
are industrious and really ingenious peo- 
ple, not so low and brutal in their aspect 
as are those of our more eastern and 
southern territories. They are shrewd 
traders and inveterate smugglers. They 
look much like the Japanese and possess 
many of their characteristics. Those who 
have studied them, and know them best, 
assert that they are a different race of be- 
ings from those Indians who were found in 
the eastern portions of our country, and 
express no doubt of their descent from 
oriental ancestors. 

We passed the house of the Hydah 
chief before we reached anchorage in Kas- 
saan. It was about fifty by forty feet up- 
on the ground, with the end toward the 
shore, in which was a door with two win- 
dows upon each side, under the gable of a 
low pitched roof. Before the door was a 
tall totem pole, carved with the symbols of 



KASAAN BAY. 133 

his fame and dignity. There were various 
other smaller buildings scattered about ir- 
regularly, which gave an air of consequence 
to the whole place. The old chief is re- 
ported to be worth ^12,000. 

We came to anchor before the salmon 
salting works of the Baroness Baronoff. 
The larger Hydah village is hidden from 
us by a grove of tall fir-trees about half a 
mile distant. As we approached this little 
village of Kasaan the gun belched forth its 
double charge, and three deep rolling in- 
tonations slowly reverberated from moun- 
tain side to mountain side, like the heavy 
mutterings which follow the bolts in a 
terrific thunder-storm.^ 

1 Kasaan Bay, May i, 1888. 

We listened to the echo — 

The echo of Kasaan ; 
From mountain answering mountain 

The diapason ran, 
Like the roll of deep-toned thunder 

In the dark and angry sky, 
When the heavens are rent asunder, 

And the red-bolts downward fly. 

There are voices in the echo — 

The echo of Kasaan, 
Which fall with awful majesty 

On the startled ear of man. 



134 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

We anchored at twelve m., and after 
lunch accepted an invitation from Captain 
Hunter to go on shore. 

The whole place is owned by an Indian 
woman, whom they call the Baroness of 
Baronoff. She Uves here with an Indian 
husband and her descendants, and rents 
the salting works to the man who took 
passage with us in mid ocean, some hours 
before. During the Russian rule in this 
northwest she was the wife of Baron Ba- 
ronoff, and one of his children was among 
the group of natives who received us upon 
the rude piazza of her "palace." We 
wandered about among the log houses and 
board shanties, about a dozen in number, 
and went behind the salting works to see 
the small stream which there found en- 
Like the voices, long imprisoned, 

Of tiie great primeval strife, 
When the mountains were uplifted 
And sprang to light and life. 

As our brave gun roused the echo — 

The echo of Kasaan, 
The haughty Hydah chieftain, 

With all his swarthy clan. 
Knew well the stately ship, which came 

In friendship to their shore, 
To wrong and strife and savage rites 

A deadly menace bore. 

C. C. J. 



KASAAN BAY. 1 35 

trance to the bay, and up which the sal- 
mon swarm m countless numbers at the 
spawning season. There we found an old 
Indian sitting before his door. 

He sat cross-legged upon a mat, wrapped 
in his blanket, and looked much like a 
rolling Dutch toy greatly magnified. His 
eyes were closed, and his broad, brown 
face was dull and heavy under his long 
and straight black hair. Altogether we 
thought him an unsightly specimen of his 
tribe. He told us he was blind, and that 
his name was Paul Jones. In answer to 
questions he informed us his blindness was 
the result of smallpox thirty-five years be- 
fore. Unlike an Indian, he talked volubly 
and begged for money to buy tobacco, and 
asked if we would buy a mat of him. He 
rose slowly from his mat, exposing his 
naked limbs beneath his blanket as he did 
so ; they told no tale of lack of nourish- 
ment. We decHned to enter his cabin 
with him, but others went in. Through 
the open door we saw a bright fire of 
sticks crossed like cobs upon stones on the 
bare ground in the middle of the square 
inclosure. An idiotic child was crawling 
about the fire, and — the rest is all to be 



136 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

guessed at and not described. As the old 
man unrolled his bark mat, the child took 
the opportunity to crawl out of the open 
door and away as fast as its deformity 
would permit. 

As we turned away, Dr. Jackson told us 
that Paul Jones lost his eyes to satisfy the 
revenge of some white sailors. He was a 
pilot in these waters and wrecked a trad- 
ing boat purposely, that his people might 
share with him in its plunder. The sail- 
ors became suspicious of him, and finding 
he was about to repeat the crime, they 
seized him and burned out his eyes. 

At the house of the baroness, among the 
group of natives, were six little children, as 
pretty and bright-looking as the average 
children in a laboring community, and as 
neatly clad. One little boy named Felix, 
who was grandson to the Baron Baronoff, 
was very pretty. The baroness that was, 
is an intelligent woman ; under some cir- 
cumstances she would compare very favor- 
ably with the working women on the re- 
mote farms in Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire. Her daughter, also the daughter of 
the Russian baron, had but little of the 
Indian in her looks. She was tall and 



FORT WRANGELL. 137 

slender, and her two little boys were very 
pretty children. The older, Felix, had soft 
auburn hair, and the younger had a straight 
Russian face. 

We entered the lighter and returned to 
our ship in a gentle drizzle of rain, which 
comes down so easily and unexpectedly 
here, that we are getting quite accustomed 
to it. 

At four o'clock p. m. we are off again 
toward Duke of Clarence Sound, whence 
we shall turn our course northward toward 
Fort Wraiigell. Mountains line the coasts 
of islands upon both sides ; some are near, 
and some, seen through the mists which 
settle about them, are like phantom shapes. 
All are wooded, not lofty enough to rise 
above the timber limit, but all are grizzled 
with the snow which lies thick upon their 
tops. Occasionally we saw white peaks 
far inland, and oftentimes were undecided 
whether they were clouds or snow-clad 
mountains, until a turn of the ship's course 
would bring them into better view, when 
we seldom failed to identify them all as 
links continuous in the grand chain of 
everlasting hills which binds these count- 
less islands and peninsulas of the conti- 



138 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

nent in one great brotherhood. " All are 
but parts of one stupendous whole." 

May 2. I was aroused by the salute of 
our ship in the night, and found soon after 
that she was motionless at the pier at Fort 
Wrangell. 

It was raining fast, and I failed to " rise 
upon the occasion," but lay in bed until 
past four o'clock. Fort Wrangell is the 
largest place we have seen since we left 
Nanaimo. The village is mostly occupied 
by the Stickeens. We are told there are 
nine white ladies at Wrangell and but a 
few more gentlemen. There is a govern- 
ment house very much resembling an old- 
time New England country tavern, with a 
square hip roof and broad piazza, and the 
national flag floating over it. The houses 
are all in a dilapidated condition, they never 
were painted, and most of them are built 
of logs. I observed that the chief's house, 
however, is an exception, and a few of the 
pickets about the burial places show signs 
of having once received a coat of red or yel- 
low paint. In the most pretentious of their 
houses they build their fires upon stones 
on the ground in the centre of its single 
apartment. Above it is a square hole in 



\ 



/ 




FORT WRANGELL. 1 39 

the roof, for the escape of smoke, which 
is sometimes partially covered by boards, 
making a kind of boxlike excrescence for 
a chimney. 

A fat old woman, wrapped in her blanket, 
sat upon the ground beside one of these 
squalid, dirty huts, and watched us quite as 
curiously as we did her. 

Upon a sharp little knoll, standing out 
into the sea, were several very time-worn 
old structures, ten by fifteen feet in size, 
with roofs and vent-holes above. These 
contained the bodies of their departed sha- 
mams or medicine men, who are never 
burned or buried, but are placed to moul- 
der in these tomb-like buildings. Every 
house of consequence had its totem pole 
before it. 

We left Fort Wrangell at six a. m., tak- 
ing a westward course, back to Clarence 
Channel. The day came on cold and rainy, 
with prospect of a more severe storm. 

Our most direct course to Juneau, the 
next objective port of entry, lay northward 
through Wrangell Strait. This passage is 
a rough one, and often perilous in a storm. 
Captain Hunter chose a longer and a safer 
route, westward through Duke Clarence 



I40 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

Channel, between Prince of Wales and 
Kuprianoff Islands ; thence southwest to 
the Pacific Ocean, around the south side 
of Coronation Island, which latter is the 
southernmost of that singular mountainous 
archipelago, really a partially submerged 
portion of Koo Island. 

After rounding Coronation Island our 
ship encountered the full force of the 
ocean swells, and she rolled and swayed 
about in a manner quite offensive to weak 
digestion. Many of our passengers devel- 
oped a lack of appetite at lunch, and many 
retired, while they could do so creditably 
to their dignity, avoiding rather than com- 
bating the effect of the heavy seas. At 
twelve M. we were directly off Coronation 
Island. 

A lovelier mountain I never saw. It 
rose from the sea hke a high table-land ; 
its surface shining with points and planes 
like a magnificent and gigantic block of 
crystal quartz. It seemed to float upon the 
glacier like green water. Its color at the 
base was a deep dark blue, which shaded 
above to lighter tints encased and tipped 
with snow and ice. I saw it through the 
mist of rain ; what must be its appearance 



CAPE OMMANY. I41 

in the clear light of the sun, I may im- 
agine, but never realize. 

In turning our course northward into 
Christian Sound, our ship cut the waves at 
right angles, and resumed her usual steady- 
motion, a relief to everybody on board. 
We sighted Cape Ommany, the southern 
extremity of Baronoff Island, where Lieu- 
tenant Schwatka informs us that it rains 
eight days in the week. 

At six p. M. we are going northward off 
the east coast of Baronoff Island. The 
strong swells of the ocean are behind us, 
and our ship moves onward responsive to 
the powerful strokes of her propeller, 
which like the regular throbs of a great 
heart gives the only motion of which I am 
conscious. 

At seven p. m. our course bends east- 
ward between Koo Island to the south 
and Murder Cove on Admiralty Island to 
the north of us. Here we enter Prince 
Frederic Sound, where we have a fine open 
sea to navigate, with many isolated moun- 
tain isles, but none in the way of our prog- 
ress. Halfway over the Sound, we began 
to see the white peaks of the continent 
showing ghostly against the still gray 



142 FICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

skies. They soon materialized into a long 
line of gigantic snowy mountains, blue and 
steely where the icy glaciers shone out 
among the great white drifts. 

As we slowly swung to a northerly 
course, we watched the long procession of 
mountain following mountain, with their 
rivers of ice flowing down between them 
to the sea until the long twilight deepened 
into night. One glacier lay between sev- 
eral mountains whose angles opened to the 
sea. It looked like a vast frozen river of 
clear blue ice, not level like smoothly flow- 
ing water, but more like what the rapids of 
Niagara would be were they instantly con- 
gealed and suspended betwixt their shores, 
motionless forever. 

May 3. We retired early last night, and 
being unusually wakeful, I listened to the 
labored action of the propeller, thinking I 
had never realized before how heavy were 
its strokes, when it suddenly stopped. The 
ship slackened speed, and then stood ap- 
parently motionless. Looking from my 
window, I perceived that we were moving 
with extreme caution in a wide, open 
space. I could hear the dash of the rest- 
less waves against the side of the ship, and 



JUNEAU. 143 

saw sparkles of light all over the water, as 
if the stars had dropped from the heavens 
and were afloat around us. They shone 
with such steady lustre, that it could not 
be the phosphorescence of the water like 
v/hat I had seen on the Atlantic. Every- 
thing about the ship was so very quiet, 
that, concluding we were under watchful 
care, I retired again to wait for develop- 
ments. Two hours after, the propeller re- 
sumed its customary action, and we went 
on our way as if nothing unusual had hap- 
pened, I thought of the story of the old 
clock, in the fable, and went to sleep. 

At three o'clock in the morning the gun 
announced our approach to Juneau, and at 
four A. M. we arose to find our ship safely 
anchored at the pier. Mrs. Willard left the 
steamer at an early hour for her son's resi- 
dence in Juneau. We felt a sense of loss 
at her departure, although her delicate 
state of health had prevented her from en- 
tering much into our spirit of enthusiasm 
as tourists. 

It was raining hard, but the work of un- 
loading stores of provision, lumber, and a 
great variety of other freight, went on with 
much expedition, assisted upon shore by 



144 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

a squad of Alaskans who possess a large 
capacity for manual labor. 

At breakfast Captain Hunter told us 
he had to lay by two hours in an ice floe 
which came down from Takou River. My 
fallen stars were shining blocks of ice. 

Juneau is the largest " city " we have 
seen north of Victoria. It is a mining 
town and stands upon the continent. The 
houses are all of wood, mostly one story 
high, and a few are thinly stained with 
paint. Treadwell's gold mine, which is 
very large and in full operation, is just 
across the channel upon Douglas Island. 
It is claimed to be the largest gold mine, 
and to be wrought with the largest stamp- 
ing mill in the world. 

The town contains over two thousand 
inhabitants. It is built upon the side of 
a hill, which rises between the shore and a 
high mountain immediately behind, from 
which it is only separated by a deep gulch, 
which is a natural reservoir for the snows 
of the mountain, probably affording a sup- 
ply of fresh water to the town. There is 
but one street for travel, and that is but 
little better than a New England cart path. 
They have but one horse in the city, so 



JUNEAU. 145 

that one road may be all they require for 
the passage of hand-barrows which the 
Indians propel with much speed, to and fro 
between our ship and the storehouses on 
shore. We saw the homes of the Indians 
on the shore, near to, but yet outside of 
the town. They were nearly all miserably 
squalid. One was situated a little distance 
up from the water, and was reached by a 
flight of rude stairs. There were Notting- 
ham lace curtains at the windows. Evi- 
dently it was the house of the big Indian, 
though there was no totem pole to indicate 
his superior rank. 

There were eight canvas-covered wig- 
wams in the village. The covers were 
probably made of bark mats, but they 
looked like old sails hung over a long pole, 
the sides elevated a little, so as to give a 
perpendicular fall of three feet. The door 
was a slit in front, which was lapped back 
when open. The Indians, with the excep- 
tion of those engaged in transferring 
freight from the ship to the storehouses, 
were all late risers, and with our glass we 
watched " the getting up " of the whole 
community. In the wigwams we could 
see all that was done. 



146 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

The Indians ate their breakfasts from a 
rock, while sitting behind it on the ground. 
After they were satisfied, the dogs walked 
over the table and licked up everything 
that was left: a good economy — there 
was no need of cloth or brush, for after the 
dogs all things were ready for the next 
spread. 

The dirty, fat squaws sat around upon 
the wet stones in the pouring rain, bare- 
foot, unwashed and uncombed for a life- 
time, and clad in rags and old blankets, 
which they hugged about their necks. 

The men were much better-looking; 
They wore stout rubber boots, and were 
dressed much like our farm laborers when 
they start upon their morning duties. 

We saw the return of a canoe with six 
Indians, men and women, from a hunting 
expedition on Douglas Island, where are 
many deer and other wild game. They 
were snugly packed in among the drift- 
wood which they had collected along their 
way. 

At Juneau there is a shelving pebbly 
shore, which can hardly be called a beach, 
— a most unusual sight in these waters. 
The Indians all clambered from the canoe, 



JUNEAU. 147 

the men protected by their rubber boots, 
but the women with bare feet and ankles, 
and hauled it upon the shore, far enough to 
enable them to unload the spoils of their 
expedition. Each one hurried to a hut 
with some bundle more precious perhaps 
than the rest, and then returned to work 
with a will. A squaw, whose face was 
black as soot and oil could paint it, pulled 
over a pile of blankets and took out her 
pappoose, which she carried to her wig- 
wam. 

The men and women worked together, 
throwing off the drift-wood and other loot 
gathered upon their way. The contents of 
the canoe consisted of the skins of various 
kinds of animals, baskets, three dead deer 
wrapped in their hides, old tinware, rags, 
and other cast-away rubbish of the miners, 
all of which are of use to the Indians. 

Two of the party, an Indian and his 
squaw, were hideously painted with soot, 
to protect them from the sun, but some 
say they paint themselves from vanity, 
and others, from an inborn love of hid- 
eousness. Some of the women had white 
bones called labretts protruding from their 
lips. All looked loathsome and miserable. 



JUNEAU. 149 

long cedar staff would have posed well for 
a Meg Merriles. 

There exists no sense of modesty or 
morality among these poor Alaskans. 
Missionaries tell us it is difficult to give 
them a proper idea of personal honor, there 
is such an element of moral depravity 
existing among the mining population. 

As the ship was preparing to leave the 
dock, a little Indian girl was brought on 
board by Miss Mathews, a teacher in the 
mission school at Juneau. The child is an 
orphan and is being sent to Sitka to re- 
move her from the influence of a depraved 
sister. A number of the official dignitaries 
of Juneau also came on board en route to 
attend court at Sitka. 

We crossed the channel to the gold 
mines on Douglas Island at 10.30 A. m., 
where we remained until noon, when we 
started northward toward Pyramid Harbor 
at the head of Lynn Channel. We first 
steamed back upon our track toward Ta- 
ken Inlet, and met many blocks of blue ice 
on our way, which came down from Takou 
Canon, where there are large glaciers. 

Rounding the southeastern point of 
Douglas Island, we came in sight of a long 



150 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

snow range of mountains upon Admiralty 
Island, which was on our left, where Snow 
Mountain sends its white summit far above 
the clouds. After entering Lynn Channel, 
we began to see small glaciers and great 
masses of ice in ravines and scooped-out 
hollows on the mountain sides, upon our 
right. Then Eagle Glacier came in view. 
This is an immense river of ice between 
the mountains, 1200 feet high, and looked, 
what it really is, a frozen cataract. If one 
can look upon the falls of Niagara and 
imagine them congealed and motionless, 
they can realize what we saw when we 
looked upon Eagle Glacier. We sighted 
twelve of these glaciers on our passage up 
Lynn Channel ; the Eagle, Rainbow, and 
Davidson's being the three largest. 

Davidson's Glacier is the largest of all, 
and is really a part of the great Muir 
Glacier on Glacier Bay — an arm of the 
ocean almost parallel to Lynn Channel 
farther to the west. 

Davidson's Glacier comes down to the 
channel like an immense river of ice, two 
or three miles in width, and seamed and 
cut by huge chasms, the edges of which 
glisten and deepen into an intensely deep 
blue. 



PYRAMID HARBOR. 15 I 

Rainbow Glacier hangs high upon the 
mountains two thousand feet above us. It 
rolls down from greater heights, and fills 
the great spaces between them with clear 
blue ice, the overflow of which drops with 
thundering crash and echo into the waters 
of Lynn Channel below. The ice is heaped 
in the middle of its flow, so that when it 
breaks it leaves a perfect arch, which, in 
a clear sunlight, flashes and scintillates 
with all the hues of a rainbow. 

The mountains which stand upon both 
sides of Lynn Channel are lofty and beau- 
tiful. In gazing at them I find myself con- 
stantly, almost unconsciously, repeating, — 

" Ye are the things that tower ; . 
Whose smile makes glad, 
Whose frown is terrible." 

I can only add that they are most satisfy- 
ingly arctic in every aspect. 

We arrived at Chilkat on Pyramid Har- 
bor at seven o'clock p. m. Here is lo- 
cated a large salmon canning establish- 
ment, which had not been operated for 
two or three years ; it may be on account 
of the fierce and brutal nature of the Chil- 
kat and Chilkoot tribes in its neighbor- 
hood. There are a dozen log huts, many 



152 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

of them roofless, scattered about on a level 
area of several acres, probably the debris 
of a dissipated glacier. It is a wild and 
desolate-looking place. One might as well 
be a veritable Robinson Crusoe as to come 
here to be a prey to mosquitoes and In- 
dians, with the chance of an ignoble death 
from the latter. 

We had not been anchored half an hour 
when there came to the ship, in a birch 
canoe, a delicate little lady, who was intro- 
duced as Mrs. White, the wife of Dr. F. F. 
White, the mission teacher at Haynes 
Post Office, about six miles distant across 
Pyramid Harbor. They saw the smoke 
from our steamer far down the channel, 
and walked four miles to the shore, just 
to get a sight of some sign of white civili- 
zation. They heard the ship's gun as they 
came to the shore, and saw and knew it 
was a steamer from California. Not hav- 
ing heard of the reopening of the cannery, 
they were not only delighted but surprised 
at the sight. They seized a canoe upon 
the shore, although a small and leaky one, 
and came over to our ship, where they 
found friends and old acquaintances. They 
remained with us until noon of the next 



PYRAMID HARBOR. 1 53 

day, which was the hour of our departure. 
In conversation with them we learned a 
great deal of the terrible labor and danger 
which these missionaries undergo in their 
efforts to civilize and christianize these 
benighted Alaskans. 

May 4. One hundred and sixty tons of 
freight were taken from the ship at Chil- 
kat. It consisted of every supply in the 
way of groceries, canned provisions, steam 
boilers, cans, and all kinds of stores and 
machinery needed for a campaign in the 
salmon season. There is no pier or wharf 
of any kind at Chilkat, and our anchor 
drew its chain ninety-five feet before it 
touched bottom, about an eighth of a mile 
off-shore. When the works were first 
opened at Chilkat, there was built a fine 
pier. The teredo is so abundant in these 
waters that the pier fell into the channel 
about six months after, a thorough wreck 
from the ravages of these little insects. 

Captain Hunter took us with several 
others on shore in a lighter, and we ex- 
plored the place pretty thoroughly. We 
went into a log hut with no roof above it, 
where there was an old squaw lying upon a 
heap of rubbish in one corner, under a kind 



154 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

of tent. She was groaning with rheuma- 
tism in her hands and hmbs, and seemed 
really grateful for the words of sympathy 
from Captain Hunter. Beside her was a 
younger squaw, baking a fire cake of some 
gray material by the feeble flame of a few 
sticks upon the ground. Dirt and squalid 
poverty and suffering were all before us. 

We went into another hut. The bare 
ground was the floor, and cracks between 
the logs wide enough to thrust our hands 
through were the windows, A rickety roof 
covered this mansion, for the Indian who 
lives in it is a carpenter, and he showed 
us his tools : an old adze, and a hatchet so 
rusty and worn, it may have been George 
Washington's for aught we know. He 
was very proud of the possession of these 
rare instruments of his trade. To them 
he probably owes the protection of a roof 
over his head ; it may be also, his ability 
to maintain two squaws in his cabin. One, 
the old squaw, was braiding a basket in the 
corner, and wheezing at every cross of the 
bark strands. The other, a much younger 
Indian girl, was lazily lounging upon a 
heap of rags. A pot of fish-oil and a pile 
of dried fish occupied another corner. 



LYNN CHANNEL, 155 

A rank kind of grass grows here in sum- 
mer ; it was standing in patches three feet 
high all around us, resembling wild rye, 
but dry from exposure during the winter. 
We gathered a large bunch as a specimen 
of the vegetation in Chilkat. 

The Elder weighed her anchor at twelve 
M. while we were at lunch, and we started 
on our return passage down Lynn Chan- 
nel. We went upon the captain's deck for 
our last look upon the mountains and gla- 
ciers of this most arctic portion of our 
northern tour. 

At Chilkat we were about 60° north lati- 
tude. The wind was chill, but not discom- 
forting. The glaciers shone beautifully 
in the declining sun, and the mountains 
were as grand and satisfying as when we 
saw them the day before. They are the 
stupendous works of nature which never 
suffer loss by familiarity. 

The clouds grew heavy above, although 
the atmosphere was clear around us. High 
up among the towering peaks of the moun- 
tains we could see a wild storm of snow 
and wind, driving furiously from peak to 
pinnacle, and shrouding them in cloud-like 
mists. 



156 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

Not a single snowflake settled upon the 
blue unruffled water of the channel, and 
the air was several degrees warmer than 
when we started from Chilkat. We stood 
at our open windows and watched the 
scenes moving slowly by, with no need of 
extra protection on our heads or shoulders. 
Lieutenant Schwatka speaks of the scen- 
ery in Lynn Channel as among the great- 
est wonders of our wonderland. 

At six o'clock p. M. we arrive at the 
entrance of Glacier Bay. Up the western 
shore leads the icy range of Mount St. 
Elias Alps. They resemble in configura- 
tion the Olympian Mountains in Washing- 
ton Territory, but are much more icy, cold, 
and grand. The air grew misty, and the 
night came on dark and rainy. 

The Indian boys from Metlahkatlah, un- 
der Dr. Jackson's care, came into the sa- 
loon and gave us a sacred concert. They 
sing remarkably well. One accompanied 
the rest upon the piano. Indians, at least 
these natives of the northwest, can learn 
to sing, as these Metlahkatlah boys have 
proved to us. 

May 4. Our ship had never plied these 
waters before, and Captain Hunter told us 



mmiiv 



iii 



■ 



I- 



I: 







' •' ''fill 



MUIR GLACIER. 157 

frankly that he was fearful of the conse- 
quences of taking her into the icy waters 
of Glazier Bay, as, at the time, it was more 
than usually flooded with floating ice and 
small icebergs. At Juneau he had learned 
of the recent fall of an immense section 
of ice along the whole face of the Muir 
Glacier. It came down with terrific thun- 
ders, dashing itself into fragments as it 
struck the waters of the bay, and caus- 
ing the rise of a gigantic wave to sweep 
along the shore to the almost entire de- 
struction of an Indian encampment. One 
Indian only made his escape by clinging to 
the limbs and body of a cedar-tree, against 
which he was thrown by the force of the 
wave. 

We saw the blue waters flecked and 
fretted with myriad shapes of floating ice, 
of mingled white and emerald, — and the 
long line of icy mountains leading up the 
western shore, culminating now and then in 
loftier summits, among which Mounts Cril- 
lon and Fairweather towered preeminent. 
I quote from Frederick Schwatka's account 
of Alaskan scenery, the remark of a '' ven- 
erable traveller," while looking north at the 



158 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

entrance to Glacier Bay. " You can take 
just what we see here, and put it down on 
Switzerland, and it will hide all there is of 
mountain scenery in Europe ; " adding, " I 
have been all over the world, but you are 
now looking at a scene that has not its 
parallel elsewhere on the globe." 

Professor Denman of San Francisco, who 
has given much attention to Alaskan gla- 
ciers, says ,: " Muir Glacier is a spectacle 
whose grandeur cannot be described — a 
vast frozen river of ice, ever slowly moving 
to the sea, and piling the enormous masses 
higher between the mountain banks, until 
their summit towers hundreds of feet in 
air. Where the point of the glacier pushes 
out into and overhangs the water, — vast 
fragments breaking apart every few mo- 
ments of their own weight, and falling 
with thundering crash into the sea, to float 
away as enormous icebergs, — it affords a 
spectacle which can only be understood 
and appreciated by one who beholds it 
with his own eyes. From the summit of 
Muir Glacier no less than twenty -nine 
others are to be seen in various direc- 
tions, all grinding and crowding their huge 



GLACIER BAY. 159 

masses toward the sea ; a sight which 
must certainly be one which few others 
can equal." 

Mr. Edward Roberts writes in the 
" Overland Monthly " : "I do not know 
how wide, nor how long, nor how deep 
Glacier Bay is. One does not think of 
figures and facts when sailing over its 
waters and enjoying the novel features. 
Flood Switzerland and sail up some of its 
canons toward Mont Blanc, and you will 
have then another Glacier Bay. But until 
the sea-waves wash the feet of that Swiss 
peak, and until one can sail past the gla- 
ciers of that country, there will never be 
found a companion bay to this of Alaska. 
Norway, with all its ruggedness, has noth- 
ing to equal it ; and there is not a moun- 
tain in all the ranges of the Rockies which 
has the majestic gracefulness of Fair- 
weather Peak, which looks down upon the 
bay." 

Our ship encountered heavy seas during 
the night, and pitched and rolled about in 
the darkness in a manner quite distressful 
to timid voyagers. We remained quiet in 
our beds, trusting to be safely watched 



l60 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

over and guarded from the dangerous 
rocks, which are, in these waters, the bete 
noir of navigators. The ship stopped once 
in the night for the passage of ice, and 
again for daylight and the tide at the en- 
trance of Peril Strait. We made the pas- 
sage in safety, and anchored in Sitka har- 
bor at nine a. m., May 5th. 



SITKA, JUNEAU, AND DOUGLAS ISLAND. 

May 5. We had upon the deck of the 
steamship two fine crafts from San Fran- 
cisco to Sitka. One was a large steam 
launch for the use of naval officials in 
Alaskan seas. It was surprising to see 
how large these vessels were when launched 
upon the harbor at Sitka. They had 
seemed so small in comparison with the 
deck of the Elder, which was nearly three 
hundred feet long. 

The tide was strong from the ocean, the 
pier at Sitka old and weak, consequently 
the Elder was anchored a little way off- 
shore, and we were compelled to land from 
a lighter, or remain on shipboard until 
night. 

We entered the small boat in a drench- 
ing rain, and proceeded to the principal 
store in town, kept by Rev. J. G. Brady, 
a government commissioner of Alaska, 
where we bought baskets made by Yakutat 



1 62 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

women under the snowy peaks of Mount 
St. Elias ; eagle's wings and other curios. 
We made, by the courteous invitation of 
Mr. Brady, a delightful call upon Mrs. 
Brady, an agreeable and entertaining lady, 
who told us a great deal of the customs of 
the Sitka natives. There were Easter ser- 
vices at the Greek church. We went near 
it to examine its exterior, and seeing noth- 
ing peculiarly attractive about it, turned 
away, as strangers were not permitted to 
enter during the hours of services. There 
was a mixed company of Indians and Rus- 
sians about the entrance ; many of them 
had little children and babies — all neatly 
dressed, and some were quite pretty. We 
joined them, and walked respectfully for- 
ward into the church, and stood among 
them in the square, vacant area in front of 
the chancel. 

The people were very devout in their 
aspect and earnestly attentive to the in- 
structions of two fine-looking Russian Fa- 
thers, who were officiating at the altar. 

We remained for some time, quietly ob- 
serving the appointments of the church — 
moving forward to the rail before the chan- 
cel in order to do so, without look or word 



SITKA. 163 

of disapproval from any one. In fact, we 
thought the benevolent faces of the priests 
had a pleasant gleam of approval, as if 
they quite understood us, and were willing 
to gratify our curiosity. We retired as 
quietly as we entered, and surprised vari- 
ous other tourists on the ship by having 
accomplished what none of them had been 
able to, although they had several times in 
the day attempted it. 

At four p. M. the rain seemed to slacken, 
and we again embarked in the little lighter 
and went on shore to visit Dr. Jackson's 
Mission School. We had been kindly in- 
vited to be present at an exhibition of 
scholarship, earlier in the afternoon, but 
the violence of the storm prevented. We 
found the Mission in a very flourishing 
condition. There were one hundred and 
seven boys and sixty girls, all between the 
ages of ten and eighteen or nineteen years. 
The teachers are enthusiastic, able, and are 
doing effectual work ; they are building for 
results, far better, perhaps, than they can 
now realize, in the great scheme for the 
emancipation of the Alaskans from bar- 
barism and superstition. 

Dr. Jackson accompanied us to Indian 



164 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

River. This is a full, rapid stream of 
mountain water, flowing from glacier- 
crowned summits behind Sitka into the 
canon below, and thence into the harbor, 
making an island of the level area upon 
which Sitka stands. It is a wildly roman- 
tic stream, at some points overarched by 
birches and white and yellow cedars, and 
along its banks were alders and thick 
clumps of willows springing from the soft 
green moss which grows beneath them. 

There are beautiful young Norway 
spruces and fine groves of primeval fir- 
trees growing all over the six hundred and 
forty acres appropriated by government to 
the Mission School. 

The harbor of Sitka has deep water, but 
is dotted over with lovely small islands and 
rocky islets all covered with low green 
shrubs and trees. The water is moderately 
calm, and oftentimes reflects like a mirror 
the beautiful islands and mountains on the 
shores. 

Across the harbor are great snowy 
mountains, behind which the sun sets, 
shedding over all such a golden light that 
in beholding it, one feels almost as if trans- 
ported to enchanted realms. 



SITKA, 165 

We saw such a sunset shining over 
Sitka and its beautiful harbor as we re- 
turned from Indian River with Dr. Jack- 
son ! 

We did not visit the " Palace " at Sitka. 
It was too stormy while we were there to 
undertake an excursion promising so little 
satisfaction. It is a large three -story 
wooden structure with a square roof, 
standing upon a little elevation by the 
shore, and very neglected. It looks more 
like an old warehouse than a palace, and 
is, I think, used for the purposes of stor- 
age, offices, etc. 

The population of Sitka numbers eleven 
hundred people, one hundred of which are 
from the States, three hundred are Rus- 
sians, and seven hundred are native Alas- 
kans. 

The Indian village stands on the shore 
upon one side of the town, and behind it 
is a burial-place. It is like other burial- 
grounds before described ; one tomb, prob- 
ably containing the ashes of a chieftain, 
has the carved image of an eagle perched 
with drooping wings upon a small pole 
rising from the middle of the roof. 

Witchcraft and all the direful supersti- 



1 66 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

tions pertaining to it exist in a deplorable 
degree among the natives throughout 
Alaska. At every port where we called, 
throughout our voyage, we were told some 
fearful story of recent horror and torture 
connected with it. 

Missionaries have labored in vain to 
eradicate the terrible superstition. Some 
of the more civilized profess to have re- 
nounced their belief in it, but facts are 
constantly occurring to give the lie to 
their professions. Among the company 
of Indian boys from Metlahkatlah which 
came on shipboard with Dr. Jackson, there 
was one fleeing from persecution as a wiz- 
ard. He had undergone torture, but had 
made his escape, and his father had sent 
him to the Mission School at Sitka for 
safety. 

May 6. We received calls from Dr. 
Jackson, Judge and Mrs. Brady, and Mrs. 
Baker this morning. They stood upon the 
pier and waved us a parting farewell, as 
our ship steamed out from Sitka and sailed 
away among the " Thousand Islands " of 
her harbor. 

As we moved away from the pier, it 
would be difficult to imagine a more lovely 



SITKA. 167 

scene of spring warmth and sunshine, be- 
tokening upon every side a general upris- 
ing of nature, after the long gloomy slum- 
bers of an arctic winter. Tender leaves 
were springing to birth upon the graceful 
birches, and the willows were gay with yel- 
low catkins. Grasses were growing upon 
the small bits of lawn before the low cot- 
tages, and pale green mosses were fresh 
and fluff with the growth of spring. Birds 
were beginning to sing upon the boughs 
which overhung the swift -flowing Indian 
River, and no sign of the visitation of win- 
ter frosts or ice or snow was visible any- 
where, until we lifted our eyes from the 
low surroundings of sea and land to the 
ever-silent mountains, whose lofty peaks 
stood cold and stark against the bkie skies, 
vying with the clouds in whiteness. 

The symmetrical Mount Vestovia stood 
like a mighty pyramid just behind the city, 
its great silver firs and cedars forming a 
fine relief for the quaintness of the old Rus- 
sian castle, the Greek church, and the low 
rambling architecture of the Russian re- 
gime, in this our "North Land," while its 
sharp, white crest shone with a constant 
li:^ht like a silver star, whose soft radiance 



l68 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

seemed a benediction on the little city at 
her feet. 

Behind Vestovia, and reaching far away 
toward the interior of Baronoff Island, 
rose a lofty serrated chain of mountains, 
ghostly and drear in their shrouds of ever- 
lasting snow. To the west, Mount Edge- 
comb stood like a bold strong buttress of 
the sky, while the beautiful blue waters of 
the harbor, with its lovely islands, seemed 
to be dancing on their sparkling way out 
into the far dim reaches of the broad Pa- 
cific Ocean, which opened its illimitable 
spaces before them. 

At nine o'clock a. m. we began our 
homeward voyage from Sitka, and soon 
after we had a gentle reminder of the roll- 
ing influence of old ocean as we crossed a 
bit of open sea before entering upon the 
winding waters of Peril Strait. 

Mount Edgecomb stood out boldly upon 
a small island on the ocean side. It is 
a fine high mountain, with a small bowl- 
shaped dome upon its top. The surface 
round about it slopes gradually to the 
shore, presenting more the semblance of a 
habitable country than any other which 
we have seen in Alaska or its islands. 



PERIL STRAIT. 1 69 

The scenery along Peril Strait is very 
picturesque, but it does not partake of that 
lofty grandeur which characterizes Lynn 
Channel. The fascination of the passage 
lies in its waters and rocky shores and 
islets. Not many miles from Sitka there is 
a difficult passage, where the water swirls 
and shoots in eddies and currents over 
bidden rocks. I watched the passage 
closely, for there, eight years before, our 
captain's ship was wrecked. For nearly 
three months he remained with his crew 
upon the little island near by, where is 
now a small settlement, which they began 
and named Eureka. 

As our ship passed through this " Peril," 
slowly making her way from point to point, 
we observed the curves in the wake which 
followed. They left the impress of a dis- 
tinct and compact letter S upon the sur- 
face. 

We saw immense flocks of black ducks 
with white wings, and large sea gulls fly- 
ing along the shores. Upon a brown sea- 
weedy rock, which rose a few feet above 
low tide, we counted thirty black cormo- 
rants feeding upon mussels, and stretch- 
ing up their long glossy necks to look at 
us as we passed by. 



I70 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

At five P. M. we cast our anchor at the 
pier at KilUsnoo. This is an Indian vil- 
lage upon the west shore of Admiralty 
Island, where is an establishment for the 
manufacture of oil from herrings, which 
swarm into the shelter of a little bay near 
by to escape the ravages of the whales 
which pursue them from the ocean. 

The wife of one of the gentlemen who 
conduct the business here, told us that 
she once counted twelve whales spouting 
at one time, just outside the bay within 
which the poor herrings were being caught 
in seines. The gentleman said he caught 
twenty - seven hundred barrels at one 
''catch." Had the poor fish remained at 
sea, their chances of safety would have 
been greater. 

Captain Hunter invited us to go on shore 
and call upon Saginaw Jake. At many of 
these villages our government gives a com- 
mission to the one most worthy, to act as 
keeper of the peace between his people 
and the white settlers among them. 

Those who hold these commissions are 
very proud of their honorable and respon- 
sible positions, and as a rule are faithful 
servants of the government. They receive 



KILLISNOO. 171 

with their appointment a large silver star 
or badge of office, which they display upon 
all occasions. 

Saginaw Jake's house was a board struc- 
ture one story high. An immense bald- 
eagle with outstretched wings, carved from 
wood and painted black and white, sur- 
mounted his door. 

Upon the other end, beneath the gable 
of the roof, was the shield of the United 
States, over which was the name of his 
tribe, and a legend upon either side of 
which he is very proud. 

" KITCHEENAULT." 



By the Governor's com- 
mission 

And the Company's per- 
mission, 

I am made the great 
Tyhee 

Of this entire illahee. 



Prominent in song and 

story, 
I 've attained the top of 

glory; 
As Saginaw I'm known 

to fame, 
Jake is my common 

name. 



Over all a small roof projected for the 
protection of the legend. In the house, 
Saginaw Jake, who is a short, laughing In- 
dian, and quite lame in his gait, drew out 
his treasures from some old trunks, and ex- 
hibited them to us. To see his delight at 



1/2 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

our expressions of admiration at every fresh 
exhibition, was very amusing. 

There were two full suits of dark blue 
uniform, gold lace, buttons, epaulets, and 
all the etceteras of a military commander's 
full-dress uniform. These Jake wears upon 
all important occasions ; he was sorry he 
did not know we were going to honor him 
with a call, for he should have put them on. 
His blankets were a marvel of savage em- 
broidery, with devices requiring an adept 
in Indian lore to interpret. 

Jake's wife pointed to a '* Sunday cake " 
upon the table. It was a marvelous speci- 
men of culinary skill. The glazing was of 
a grayish pink color, upon which were 
traced in red outlines, figures of Indians 
running around a central knob, the import 
of which I could not guess. The cake was 
for their supper. Jake's wife had been 
at the Mission in Sitka, where she had 
learned to cook. Leaving Saginaw Jake 
happy over a pair of eye-glasses which C. 
gave him, we made a call upon the white 
ladies of the place. 

We met three ladies, two of them the 
wives of the proprietors of the oil works, 
and the third the teacher of the govern- 



DOUGLAS ISLAND. 1 73 

ment school, all very intelligent and agree- 
able people. They returned our call with 
their husbands, and spent a pleasant hour 
with us upon shipboard. At nine p. m. we 
were again pursuing our return voyage to 
Juneau. 

May 7. We awoke this morning at Ju- 
neau, where our ship exchanged mails, etc. 
It was cloudy, but dry. At seven o'clock 
we were ready to walk on shore, which was 
well, for before eight it began to rain, and 
we returned in a drenching shower. Ju- 
neau has no decent street ; we picked our 
way along the dirty pathway, across little 
streams which trickled down from the hill 
above and ran into the bay, along the 
gray stony beach. We went as far as the 
post-office, and bought baskets and curios 
made by Indians near Mount St. Elias, re- 
turning to the Elder in season for break- 
fast. We have several ladies on board go- 
ing to Oregon and California. 

At 10.30 we left Juneau and steamed 
across the channel once more to Douglas 
Island, where we visited the mines and 
crushing mills of the Treadvvell Mining 
Company. 

Up a trail of half a mile on the side of 



174 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

the mountain we came to an immense 
open pit, in which the miners were at work 
blasting out the ore, three hundred feet 
below the surface where we stood. From 
the bottom of the pit runs a tunnel which 
conducts the ore upon cars to the crush- 
ing-mills on the shore below. We went 
through the various departments of these 
mills and saw enough of their operations 
to give us some idea of their principles and 
results. 

Through the kindness of Dr. Jackson 
we had received a call upon the ship from 
E. W. Weesner and wife, of Douglas Island, 
when we were here on May 3d. Again we 
had the pleasure of seeing them. Mr. 
Weesner is a member of the '' Friends So- 
ciety," and was sent to Alaska, accom- 
panied by his family and another gentle- 
man and lady, by Kansas '' Friends," to 
establish a mission school on Douglas 
Island. 

He is an enthusiastic and successful 
laborer in the mission work in which he 
and his colaborers have engaged. The 
field is a broad one, the labor great, often- 
times attended with much danger, always 
with much self-sacrifice, and sometimes, we 



FRIENDS' MISSION. 1 75 

fear, with many privations. He hopes to 
be assisted in the estabUshment of such 
a home school on Douglas Island as Dr. 
Jackson has so successfully instituted and 
maintained by the contributions of its pa- 
trons and the aid of the United States 
government at Sitka. Upon our return to 
the East we shall try to do what we can 
ourselves, and to interest our friends in 
Mr. and Mrs. Weesner and the " Friends 
Mission Home School " in Alaska. 

Three p. m. There is nothing to record 
in the progress of our voyage except that 
it is still raining. I find it has rained many 
days, but you must not suppose that we 
are dissatisfied with the weather. On the 
contrary, we congratulate ourselves that 
we have not seen a thick fog upon the 
sea or mountains since we started on our 
Alaskan voyage. The chances are that a 
month later tourists will experience many 
disappointments from the presence of ob- 
scuring fogs. Large cakes of ice, not large 
enough to be mentioned as icebergs, or 
numerous enough to threaten us with dan- 
ger, are floating along our way. They are 
green as emerald, and often take fanciful 
forms, sometimes like flocks of white geese 



176 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

in the distance, or mammoth swans float- 
ing gracefully by upon the pulsing waves. 

May 8. At ten o'clock last night our 
ship came to anchor a little way off the 
shore of Mitgoff Island to await daylight 
and a full tide, before entering Wrangell 
Strait, which is a difficult passage at best, 
and had never been navigated by so large 
a vessel as the G. W. Elder. It separates 
Mitgoff Island from the large eastern pen- 
insula of Kuprianoff Island. On our up- 
ward voyage we avoided it by taking to the 
more open seas. 

The sun shone bright at 5.30 this morn- 
ing, and spread a kind of golden haze 
over the hoary hills and white mountains. 
There had been a snow-storm in the upper 
atmosphere, and the low green mountains 
alongshore looked as if covered with feath- 
ery hoar-frost. 

Several of the crew went off in a boat 
to dig clams for breakfast upon the shal- 
lows near the shore. 

On the previous day we sighted a low 
vessel far in our wake, and watched its 
progress by its trail of black smoke on the 
horizon, until we lost sight of it in the twi- 
light. Now it came steadily up and passed 



WRANGELL NARROWS, I// 

US, as we were still awaiting the tides. 
The old tale of the hare and the tortoise, 
thought I, as it crept slowly on through 
the Narrows before us. The cabin boys 
were sweeping and dusting within and the 
deck boys scrubbing and polishing with- 
out, and I took the opportunity to brush 
and free our skirts and coats from the dust 
and mire of our excursion in the mines the 
previous day. 

At eight o'clock we started for the Nar- 
rows. The shores approach quite near to 
each other in some places, and the rocks 
poke up their ugly heads all covered with 
sea-weeds and mosses, which fortunately 
indicate their whereabouts at high water 
to the watchful pilot. 

We moved slowly, turning this way and 
that way to avoid the shoals indicated by 
buoys, or the grim and cruel rocks, some 
visible and some hidden we knew not 
where, but above which stood white sig- 
nals of various designs to denote different 
degrees and stages of the dangerous pas- 
sage. 

At last we were safely through the most 
difficult part of the Strait, and Captain 
Hunter came around to see if we had been 



1/8 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

good sailors under the excitement of our 
morning voyage. We asked him if we 
were quite through the dangers of the Nar- 
rows. He answered us with a look of hon- 
est gratitude upon his face, " Yes, thank 
God, we are through with them," and add- 
ed, " The ship is too large for these Nar- 
rows; I shall not go to Red Bay, although 
I have their mails on board. They may 
send them there by a smaller ship. The 
Elder draws fourteen feet without freight." 
The steward came to tell us there were 
great multitudes of white gulls upon the 
shallows near the shores, feeding upon 
clams and mussels. They rose and flut- 
tered low, and settled again upon the 
brown weedy shore like a fall of great 
snowflakes in a drifting squall. 

Farther on were numerous flocks of wild 
ducks and white-necked divers ; then came 
multitudes of large black birds with bills 
as red as blood, doubtless another species 
of duck or diver. 

Thousands and thousands of snipes in 
many flocks went winging their way low 
over the water around us, and flights of 
sable cormorants pass now and then along 
the coast. Eagles float in the air, high 



WRANGELL. 1 79 

over all, and are so numerous among the 
high, timbered mountains that we can get 
sight of one or two, almost every time we 
turn our eyes above the sea and its sur- 
roundings. With our glass we can see 
their fierce bald heads and white -plumed 
necks, and tails, and almost measure the 
sweep of their broad, black wings. 

We saw an Indian fishing camp upon 
the shore of Kuprianoff. Several Indian 
men were sitting upon some stones in the 
edge of the forest, as if they had just come 
out from their wigwam, which stood be- 
hind them under the shadows of the fir- 
trees. Drawn upon the shore in front of 
them, were several bark and log canoes, 
and about them lay scattered their various 
camp furnishings, piles of skins, etc. Red 
blankets and shirts were hanging over a 
pole near by, and strung upon another pole 
were a dozen or more of split salmon, dry- 
ing in the sun and air. It was a real story- 
book scene, and came well up to our child- 
hood imaginings of Indians in the wild 
woods. 

At twelve o'clock p. m. we arrived at Fort 
Wrangell, where we went on shore. We 
crossed the long pier leading up to the 



l8o PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

town, for Wrangell, unlike most of the 
ports on this coast, has not a deep-water 
shore. It is situated upon an island of the 
same name, is a trading port, has a custom 
officer and a government school. 

The natives were sitting about in groups 
upon the stones and ground. The women 
and children were neatly clad, and were 
very pretty and picturesque, with their 
rosy brunette complexions and red, blue, 
or yellow kerchiefs upon their heads. 
The Indian men and boys of Fort Wran- 
gell did not impress us so favorably in 
comparison as at Juneau and Sitka. It may 
be that the men are many of them away 
mining, hunting, or fishing. We bought 
garnets, and carved silver bracelets, etc., 
and went to look at the totem poles and 
totems tombs. Most of the Indian houses 
are built of logs and are very old. A few 
aspire to frame-houses ; evidently they are 
of the F. F.'s of the Stikeens, for their 
frame-houses are built behind some very 
ancient totems. 

The first totem to which we came was 
an enormous whale, carved from a huge 
log of fir or pine, four feet in diameter. 
Its great grinning teeth were painted white. 



WRANGELL. l8l 

between his jaws and parted lips. It was 
supported behind with its great head resting 
upon the small house containing ancestral 
ashes. Close beside it stood another small 
house, in a somewhat better state of pre- 
servation, although the aperture for the 
reception of the boxes containing the 
ashes was open and the boxes within were 
broken and scattered about. Crouching 
upon this house was the figure of a wolf, 
about ten feet from tip to tip ; his head 
and tail being extended in a line with his 
back, — an arrangement which was a ne- 
cessity, since he was carved from another 
great log. His mouth is open, his tongue 
protruding, and his teeth gleaming with 
white paint. A green mould, which looked 
almost like a coat of paint, had covered 
his body. 

Next we came to the totem poles. 
These we found standing before old dilapi- 
dated log houses, having no sign of pres- 
ent habitation. The crow, seal, jay, and 
bear were the leading figures carved upon 
them. Farther along the shore was the 
house of the Stikeen chief. It was a two- 
story mansion with bay windows and other 
modern ornamentations, but in an unfin- 



1 82 PICTURESQUE ALASKA, 

ished condition. The chief had boarded 
up his windows, and gone with his squaw 
and children to fishing and hunting 
grounds for the summer. The Indian is 
an aristocrat, in having a winter residence 
in town, which is too confining and re- 
straining for his wild nature in the milder 
months of summer, when he resorts to the 
shores and woods, and remains there until 
the frosts and snows of winter drive him 
town-ward again. 

In front of the Stikeen chief's house 
were two very elaborate totem poles. 
They were from forty to fifty feet in 
height, and four and a half in diameter. 
Large trees were selected, which from top to 
bottom were carved with images of eagles, 
crows, and bears, representing the honors 
and brave exploits of four or five genera- 
tions. One was surmounted by an Ameri- 
can tile hat carved of wood, to tell that the 
present chief considered himself a " Boston 
man." Doubtless he wore the star of a 
government official. 

Before our return to the Elder we called 
at the house of Mrs. Young, a teacher in 
the mission and government school. The 
school was not in session, but the general 



WRANGELL. 1 83 

appearance of the females at Fort Wrangell 
spoke volumes to us in favor of the success 
of the mission. It is through the Indian 
women of Alaska that their race is to be 
redeemed and elevated. 

At two p. M. we steamed away from 
Fort Wrangell. As we went past the old 
Indian burial-place, which stands well out 
into the channel, we remarked many roof- 
like structures, surrounded with pickets 
and painted and ornamented with images 
of frogs, birds, and beasts. The captain 
told us something of the shrewdness of 
the old Stikeen chief. 

The Stikeen River enters the sea about 
six miles above Wrangell. It is a large 
river and at certain seasons is frequented 
by vast quantities of salmon. The Stikeen 
Indians have always claimed an exclusive 
right to fish and navigate the river for 
thirty miles back to the line of boundary 
between Alaska and British Columbia. 

After the English opened their gold 
mines beyond this boundary, they were 
obliged to navigate our portion of the Sti- 
keen River in transport between them and 
their ports of British Columbia. 

The old Stikeen chief established a toll 



1 84 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

on the river at the Hne of boundary, which 
he collected for years. The English trad- 
ers and miners paid these tolls more from 
fear than in recognition of his rights to 
demand them. The chief is now a rich as 
well as a big Indian. He is also a most 
skilful smuggler, and thus far has defied 
detection. It is said he rigs his boats for 
a long voyage and goes to the continent 
of Asia, returning safely with a freight of 
opium and other merchandise. It is to be 
hoped that the custom officials at Wrangell 
are not in danger of that infliction of total 
blindness which affects ** those who will 
not see," if the story of the Stikeen's 
voyages to China is a true one. 



CHAPTER VI. 

RETURN TO TACOMA. 

Tourists who go early in the season to 
Alaska will find many curios to take home 
with them, such as Indian blankets, bas- 
kets, mats, carved bracelets, rings, and a 
variety of horn spoons. These last are 
carved very ingeniously from the horns of 
the wild mountain sheep and a species of 
snow-white chamois or goats, with small 
horns as black as ebony, which frequent 
the highest altitudes of the great snow 
mountains all through the region of our 
Northwest. Their spoons are used for la- 
dles to dip the seal and fish oil from their 
woven buckets, in which it is stored for 
the winter. Some are made smooth and 
chased with uncouth hieroglyphics, em- 
blems of tribal distinctions, etc. Others 
have traceries of lines and geometrical fig- 
ures, outlines of simple flowers, etc., all 
stained red with a dye which they make 
from some particular root. The smaller 



1 86 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

black spoon, which we found at Chilkat, 
made from the horn of a mountain goat, is 
carved along the handle with the heads of 
animals with large eyes and upright ears, 
somewhat resembling a rabbit, with other 
strange devices. 

The Chilkat people with the Hydahs are 
considered the highest types of all the 
many tribes of Alaska in intelligence, phy- 
sical strength, and wealth. They are fierce 
and warlike, but all are industrious. The 
Hydahs excel in their stone carvings, but 
the Chilkats have no rivals in the manufac- 
ture of fine blankets for dancing or war, 
so that all blankets in Alaska, as a rule, 
are called " Chilkat blankets." These are 
made from the wool of the white goat. 
The pelts are washed and combed and 
used for bedding, but the combings are 
carefully made into rolls by the squaws, 
who sit upon the ground and form them 
into their proper shape, when they roll and 
stretch them upon their bared knees with 
the palms of their hands into a cord or 
yarn. This yarn they dye with various 
bright colors, made from roots, mosses, and 
barks of trees, and weave into their blan- 
kets. Some are white as snow, with highly 



CHILKA T BLANKE TS. 1 8 / 

colored figures and stripes interwoven 
throughout ; and others are red, blue, and 
yellow, with the like ornamentations of 
other colors. One, a dancing -blanket, 
which we saw, was covered with figures 
made of a variety of white shells, embroi- 
dered upon a red ground ; and still another 
was studded with white pearl buttons. 
Long narrow strips with fringes were to 
be tied below the knees, and fringes 
for the ankles accompanied this dancing- 
blanket. Some of these blankets are val- 
ued at a hundred dollars, and many tour- 
ists are found who are willing to become 
the fortunate purchasers of them. They 
are woven by suspending the warp from a 
carved upright frame, and the bright colors 
are woven in with a bone or ivory shut- 
tle. It is a marvel how they are kept free 
from contact with the dirt which surrounds 
them, but we were told that the squaws 
kept them covered with a sheet resembling 
oiled silk, made from the dried intestines 
of the bear, and sewed together in strips. 
As the wealth of the natives in all the dif- 
ferent tribes is reckoned by the number 
of blankets they possess, the Chilkats are 
considered the richest of all Alaskans. 



1 88 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

At Chilkat we picked up a pebble white 
as marble, and rounded and polished as if 
worn into symmetry by the waves of the 
ocean ; yet there it lay among the rough 
stones upon the little beach almost a hun- 
dred miles beyond their abrading influ- 
ence. A geologist of our party told us it 
was doubtless a glacier pebble, worn into 
its smooth and rounded form by the grind- 
ing flow of an ancient glacier, which once 
overhung the harbor. The area upon 
which we landed was the debris of a gla- 
cier, and we could see the track it left 
upon the bare mountain side to mark its 
preexistence as one of the many glaciers 
which are now upon both sides of Lynn 
Channel. I picked from among others, 
attracted by a bluish white color, another 
pebble, somewhat irregular in its form, 
in which were easily distinguished five 
distinct specks of free gold. I gave it to 
a mining engineer of our party, who said 
he should send some prospectors back into 
the mountains, following the old track of 
the glacier in search of a gold mine. We 
at once named the prospective mine, or 
perhaps the dim perspective mine, "The 
William Seward." May it some time come 



CURIOS. 189 

to light and give all the honor that gold can 
give to the name of the great statesman. 

We brought from Chilkat the wand of a 
Shaman. The Indian who sold it to us re- 
marked he was glad to part with it. " It 
had done much mischief." It was made 
of bone, about a foot in length, and sharply- 
pointed at one end, while the other was 
carved to represent a grotesque human 
head. 

At Juneau we found Indian coats and 
robes made of plucked eagles' skins sewed 
together, and dried eagles' skins with head, 
beak, talons, wings, and entire plumage of 
the noble birds, which, in the hands of a 
skilful taxidermist, can be finely mounted 
as mementos of Alaska. Dr. Jackson told 
us he had seen great flocks of these fierce 
birds, too numerous to be counted, flying 
over the mountains and the seas. One 
lady said she had seen thirty or forty sit- 
ting upon the boughs of a single tree. 

The Hydah Indians excel in their stone 
carvings. We saw some beautiful dark 
stone vases, very antique and oriental in 
shapes, and finely ornamented with strange 
figures of birds, beasts, and fishes, com- 
bined with human heads and limbs in 



IQO PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

Strange juxtaposition ; which all have sig- 
nificance to these native artists. We 
brought home with us a rare stone pipe of 
exquisite finish and workmanship. Their 
vases are not confined to one model. The 
artists vary their conceptions of shape and 
ornamentation as if they wrought out at 
will symbols which embody their own wild 
and fantastic imaginings. The instruments 
used in all their work are extremely few, 
rude, and simple. 

Beautiful silver rings and finely chased 
bracelets for the wrists or ankles are made 
from ten-cent pieces, quarters, halves, and 
whole silver dollars. 

Most excellent basket work and table 
mats come to Sitka and Juneau from the 
Indians near Mount St. Elias. They are 
woven or braided from the inner bark 
of the roots of trees, which is very strong 
and flexible. They use various colored 
dyes, and weave into their work fanciful 
figures and ornamental stripes. Old glass 
bottles of whatever shape are avariciously 
seized upon and covered with a delicate 
network of woven fibre, striped with bright 
colors. These they sell to tourists for 
toilet stands, etc. 



CURIOS. 191 

At Sitka we saw many specimens of 
work which the mission girls and boys had 
done under the training influence of the 
school, showing that the native Alaskans 
are susceptible of great advancement in 
every desirable way. 

The women and girls do very fine nee- 
dle-work ; the boys make good carpenters. 
A pretty chamber set of white cedar was 
shown to us, complete in all its parts and 
in the modern style, which was made wholly 
by the Indian boys. At Judge Brady's 
house we were shown a small model of a 
kyack, or Indian war canoe. It was about 
two feet long, made of dried seal-skins, and 
manned completely by a crew of Indian 
images, all painted and arrayed in war 
paint and dress, with eagles' plumes and 
instruments of warfare. The toy would 
be a credit to any manufacturer among 
us. A small model in white cedar of an 
Indian canoe was given us by Dr. Jack- 
son. It is not only perfect as a model, 
but it is also a marvel of neatness and 
precision in execution, which would be a 
credit to the most skilful workman among 
our own people. 

We were told at Sitka that the lowest 



192 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

degree of cold marked by the mercury in 
the previous winter of 1887 and 1888 was 
6° above zero. In truth, the climate is less 
severe anywhere upon the coast of Alaska 
as far west as Cross Sound than is that 
of New England, owing to the Japanese 
current, the "■ black stream," or Kuro-Siwo. 
This warm equatorial current in the Pacific 
affects and moderates the climate of the 
great Alexander Archipelago, as the Gulf 
Stream of the Atlantic Ocean does that of 
the British Isles. 

There are but very few domestic animals 
in Alaska. At Sitka there was one mule, 
which did no labor, and two cows. The 
latter were owned by a lady who went to 
Nanaimo and purchased them the season 
before we saw them. She sold their milk 
for fifteen cents per quart, but did not find 
it profitable to keep them, as she was forced 
to send to southern ports for grain, etc., to 
feed them. 

There are wild strawberries in abun- 
dance at Sitka, and the red-bear berry, a 
kind of coarse, wild raspberry, which we 
sometimes find in the woods of New Eng- 
land ; bu^ the summer is too short to per- 
fect apples, peaches, etc. 



HOUSES. 193 

The fuel is obtained by the natives, who 
go in their canoes and fell the trees, which 
grow so near the shore that they will fall 
into the water. These they float toward 
the desired point, where they cut them 
into fire -wood, which they convey upon 
their backs to those who purchase it. 

At Juneau there was one horse, a poor 
creature, which picked its way along the 
stony roadway on the shore as if disheart- 
ened at its lonely existence. These were 
the only domestic animals, excepting dogs, 
which we saw in Alaska. 

The houses are usually built of rough 
logs placed upright and close together, and 
then plastered with blue clay, all hollows 
and cracks being filled with it. They are 
then covered with boards, which overlap so 
as to shed rain and snow, which makes 
them warm and safe as a fortress of de- 
fence against attacks from disaffected na- 
tives or wild beasts. 

Mr. Weesner, of the Friends' Mission at 
Douglas Island, told us they brought one 
hundred and fifty of these logs upon their 
backs from the forest, and with them built 
the outer walls of their schoolhouse. The 
labor of building is very arduous when it 



194 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

is considered that they have no means of 
transporting heavy burdens excepting upon 
their own backs. 

At three o'clock p. m. we were mak- 
ing all the speed we could, for the sky 
was gray and the rain falling fast. An 
hour later the mountains upon the conti- 
nent were wholly hidden from us, and the 
green mountain islands were dark and 
shadowy in the thick, shrouding rain. 
The wind came down in gusts at first, and 
then blew a steady gale from the south- 
east. 

The sea tossed, and the waves rose 
high about us, crested with foam, which 
flew away like feathers upon the wind, as 
they broke and gave place to others. 
Far as I could see, there was nothing but 
the white waves of the ocean, tossing and 
rolling in great heaving swells, and fling- 
ing their spray like flakes of snow, under 
the brooding darkness of the sky. 

The wind was right against us in our 
course, and actually howled about the ship 
and whistled in her rigging. The storm 
continued to increase for more than an 
hour ; the wind held steady, and the ship 
rose and pitched with every swell, cutting 



NAHA BAY, 1 95 

the deep troughs between with unfaltering 
progress. 

The scene was truly a sublime one. I 
watched the force of the storm upon the 
ocean until past ten o'clock, when I closed 
the curtain of our window and lay down 
awhile to await the developments of the 
night. 

We peeped out occasionally at the sea. 
It grew somewhat calmer as we advanced 
more within the shelter of the islands, and 
the sky was less dark. We were making 
for Naha Bay, where was a safe harbor at 
Loring. A little before midnight the ship 
checked her speed, and I recognized the 
headlands of Naha Bay. Soon followed 
the report of her gun and its resounding 
echoes, and then the shrill whistle of her 
engine. 

Signal lights appeared at the salmon 
cannery, and we moved on to our anchor- 
age, where we hoped to remain until day- 
light. Just as we were dropping asleep 
with an assurance of safety until morning, 
we had a suspicion that the ship had re- 
sumed her voyage. 

May 9. At five a. m. We have just 
passed through Tongas Narrows in safety 



196 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

and are now in Dixon's Entrance, having 
left Naha Bay at one a. m. The ship pur- 
sued her way through the storm and dark- 
ness, within the shelter of the islands, so 
quietly that it was only when she took on 
her usual speed in clearer waters that we 
were aroused from our sleep. 

At the breakfast-table Captain Hunter 
looked anxious and weary with his night 
of watchfulness and labor. He remarked 
that he should call only at those ports 
where he was assured of the safety of his 
ship, as the storm was still severe. 

Fortunately I have been able to keep 
my head erect and level. None of us have 
expressed fear, although we have learned 
that wrecks are all too frequent in these 
waters during a storm to make it a jest to 
navigate them. 

Captain Hunter inspires every one with 
confidence. He is a Swede by birth, 
married to an Ensflish wife, and has been 
navigating along the Atlantic and Pacific 
coast for many years. His untiring 
watchfulness and honest expression of the 
responsibilities of his charge, coupled with 
his acknowledged reputation as a wise and 
skilful commander and navigator, give us 



DIXON'S ENTRANCE. 1 97 

all confidence in the safe completion, in 
good time, of our adventurous northern 
tour. 

Nine a. m. The storm runs high ; the 
wind is strong and loud, and the waves 
beat upon the rocky shores and leap and 
dash their foam higher than the tops of 
the trees. The ship rolls and pitches in 
the swells and troughs of the sea so that 
one can hardly cross the saloon in safety. 
The sea everywhere is white with crested 
waves, which seethe and toss in all direc- 
tions. 

The old porter, who has sailed the seas 
all his life, solemnly blinks his small eyes 
at me and answers, " Yes, ma'am, it is a 
fine chopping sea, and the wind is more 
than half a gale." 

Very few gentlemen have been seen on 
deck to-day. I stand and watch the sea, 
braced with bent knees and clenched 
hands against a windov/ in the saloon. 
The good ship rises and falls from side 
to side with the sea ; at times, with the 
regularity of a pendulum, and then with 
a wild and lurching pace, she stumbles 
through the billows, and rises and moves 
stately on again with the ease and grace 
of a buoyant bird upon the stormy waves. 



198 PICTURESQUE ALASKA 

If my head swims a bit, my eyes fly to 
the firm-set mountains upon the shore, and 
I realize literally what it is to '* Lift up mine 
eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh 
my help." 

10.30 A. M. The rain comes down in 
torrents. There is no sign of land in any 
direction, but water — water everywhere. 
The words of the old song, I heard in my 
childhood, come to my memory like a 
thing of yesterday : 

" Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer ; 
List, ye Landsmen, all to me; 
Messmate, hear a brother sailor 
Sing the dangers of the sea." 

II o'clock A. M. The waves run less 
high, and five minutes later the fierce 
squall seems to have spent its fury, the 
coast appears dark but distinct, and the 
clouds begin to break away above it. The 
wind is less boisterous and the waves are 
calmer, as we come within the shelter of 
Porcher Island. 

3 p. M. We are in Grenville Strait, and 
the wildness and grandeur of the storm at 
sea is past. It continues to rain, but in 
frequent showers rather than a steady 
down-pour. The scenery upon shore, for 



GRENVILLE STRAIT. 1 99 

the first time since we left Fort Wrangell, 
begins to assert its claim upon us. The 
mountains upon both sides stand up bold 
and beautiful, with mossy rocks and hard, 
bare summits, while thick evergreen trees 
cover their sides down to the water every- 
where. 

There is not the depth of snow upon 
them that we saw two weeks ago, but still 
enough to give us a succession of water- 
falls. Some, Hke silver ribbons, can be 
traced from summit to base, and others 
large and leaping down from steep to 
steep, now in full relief against the dark 
mountain side, and then half hidden by a 
veil of green. Sometimes they come with 
a single bound into the sea, and sometimes 
they lose themselves at the foot of the 
mountains as if somd cavern had opened 
for them a way beneath the shore. 

For fifty miles this marvellous roadstead 
leads on between Pitt Island and the con- 
tinent, presenting a most fascinating nat- 
ural panorama of green mountain steeps 
and sterile rocky fastnesses, hung all 
along with glorious cascades and moun- 
tain torrents — 

" Whose organ-thunders never fail 
Behind the cataract's silver veil." 



200 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

May 10. A lady who came on board 
with her sick husband at Sitka, and to 
whom we gave one of our staterooms on 
the return passage, awoke us at an early 
hour. The gentleman had little hope of 
surviving the voyage when he started, and 
at lo A. M, he died. 

We came into Queen Charlotte Sound, 
where we received the full force of the 
ocean swells, and for three hours there 
was nothing for us to do but to patiently 
suffer and endure. Nearly every one re- 
tired during the passage, but I braced my- 
self and kept my eyes upon the sea and 
the mountains on the coast. The rain 
sometimes hid them from my sight, but I 
looked where I knew they were still stand- 
ing behind the mist, and kept my head 
level with will-power, while I swayed with 
the rolling and the plunging of the ship. 

The old porter said, *' Yes, ma'am ; it is 
a rough sea;" but with another turn of his 
queer little eyes, as if to dispel any fear I 
might indulge in, he added, ** Not rough 
weather iiozv, ma'am." We all survived 
the seas of Queen Charlotte, and when we 
reached Johnstone Strait, Vancouver's Is- 
land once more presented its broad and 



QUEEN CHARLOTTE SOUND. 20I 

Storm-worn shield between us and the 
vexed waves of the Pacific Ocean. 

It is wonderful what recuperative capac- 
ities a seasick voyager manifests as soon 
as the obnoxious cause of the disease 
ceases to exist. Our lunch was spoiled, for 
we would not attempt the passage of the 
stairway, when so doubtful of our ability 
to cross the saloon. We knew we could 
never navigate it gracefully, however safely 
we might have done it. 

At three o'clock p. m. we sighted the 
Anchon, the companion steamer for Alaska. 
The storm of the previous day had made 
it impossible for us to stop at Fort Ton- 
gas, to leave the custom deputy, who was 
on board from Sitka, and our ship signalled 
the Anchon to lay by and take him back 
to Tongas. It took half an hour for the 
Anchon to come, take on board our pas- 
senger, exchange mails, etc., and go again 
upon her way. 

We felt a pity for the gay group of tour- 
ists on her deck, who would in less than an 
hour be seeking what solace they might 
find upon their beds in the stifled atmos- 
phere of a state-room below the deck ; for 
Queen Charlotte had not yet had time to 

1 



202 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

compose her angry, storm-vexed billows 
into a state of ease and quietude. This 
day has been rather a sad one for all of 
us, and also uneventful save to the poor 
woman whose husband lies in his coffin 
upon the captain's deck above us. At mid- 
night the stars shone bright. 

May II. We were glad to see the sun 
shining over the green islands and moun- 
tains on our left as we arose this morning, 
and were thankful for the light of its coun- 
tenance once more. 

We were again in the Bay of Georgia, 
and at seven o'clock called at Departure 
Bay and transferred Captain Frances, a 
naval officer who came with us from Sitka, 
to the government ship Thetis, which lay 
in the bay. The Thetis was on her way 
to Sitka to relieve the ship Pinta, which 
has been stationed in Alaskan waters for 
some time. 

Departure Bay is a small but deep har- 
bor upon Vancouver's Island a few miles 
above Nanaimo, and is a coaling port for 
all British ships navigating the Pacific 
Ocean. A fine large merchant steamer 
was standing at her pier about to start 
for Japan and China. 



NANAIMO. 203 

Wellington coal mines are in the vicin- 
ity of Departure Bay, and the town is the 
outgrowth of its extensive operation. It 
is rather larger and more attractive in 
appearance than Nanaimo. It may be an 
older settlement. 

We reached Nanaimo at 8 a. m. and 
shall remain an indefinite time, as the cap- 
tain has orders to lay in 1200 tons of coal 
for transportation to southern ports. 

I read " The Angel of Patience " to poor 
Mrs. Overend this morning. I am afraid 
we shall feel the need of invoking the aid 
of the same good angel for ourselves be- 
fore we get away from Nanaimo. 

We went on shore and heard of the 
wreck of the Queen of the Pacific, some- 
where near Monterey, in the late fearful 
storm which we encountered. We are the 
more thankful for our preservation from 
similar disaster among the shoals and nar- 
rows of the inland passage to Alaska. 

The Queen of the Pacific was a com- 
panion ship to the G. W. Elder of the Pa- 
cific Steamship Company, between San 
Francisco and San Diego ; the Elder hav- 
ing but temporarily been diverged from 
her usual route to the trading posts and 
fishing stations in Alaska. 



204 PICTURESQUE ALASKA, 

We posted our letters at Nanaimo for 
friends at home. The post-office is a fine, 
large building built of hewn stone upon a 
steep bluff above the harbor, in the north- 
ern part of the town. Not far from it is 
an old block tower which was used by the 
first settlers as a place of refuge from the 
Indians. This stands upon a precipitous 
bluff upon the shore, at the mouth of the 
Nanaimo River, — a pretty little stream 
which comes dancing down from the high 
hills behind the town into a broad shallow 
below the tower. There is one good road- 
way leading toward Departure Bay, but 
there were few signs of any cultivation of 
the soil. 

We found several pretty rustic bridges 
over the Nanaimo River, and the roadsides 
were bright with a variety of wild flowers, 
many more than we can hope to find in 
New England upon our waysides in the 
month of June. 

The coaling of the ship goes on quite 
slowly, as the coal is all mined after an 
order has been received for its delivery. 
None is kept upon the surface, as it is of 
such a nature that it is injured by long 
exposure to the air. It is dumped upon 



NANAIMO. 205 

the cars which stand beside the shaft, and 
brought to the ship and discharged, while 
another lot is being mined, and there are 
often intervals of waiting. The work goes 
on nearly through the night, and we get 
what sleep we can, with the rattling of 
coal down the hatches of the ship. 

May 12. This day we spent upon ship- 
board waiting to resume our homeward 
voyage. The only incident to record is 
the strange fish which was landed upon 
the pier by some boys of the town. It 
was a star-fish, but possessed of the very 
unusual number of sixteen finger-like rays. 
The creature was of huffish color and was 
encased in a kind of embossed mail — a 
very strange specimen of its kind, and we 
have been unable to find an account of it 
in natural histories. 

At five o'clock p. m. the coal is all 
stored in the hold of our ship (1400 tons), 
and we are ready to bid adieu to Nanaimo 
and its quiet and picturesque little harbor. 
The air is balmy, the skies cloudless, and 
the sun shines brightly upon sea and 
mountains, giving promise of a delightful 
sunset and a lingering twilight. 

We passed out between the pretty is- 



206 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

lands and soon came past the outer light- 
houses, into the broader waters of the 
Gulf of Georgia. The mountains reared 
their white serrated lines upon our left, 
and soon we saw the sharp high peak of 
Mount Baker in the south. The sun was 
shining full upon them, and they reflected 
its Hght with a cold and pearly lustre. 

We saw the water of the Frazer River 
for many miles before we passed its en- 
trance to the gulf. It seemed to preserve 
its continuity, its motion, and its deep dun 
color, flowing upon the sea as upon the 
land, a mighty rolling river. 

As we approached Victoria the sunset 
light began to glow with a faint pink color 
upon the lofty summit of Mount Baker, 
and soon the whole line sweeping far up 
the gulf to the north was bathed in a deep 
roseate light, like that which travellers 
have described upon Mount Blanc. 

The day passed, and we left the city of 
Victoria, the blue waters of the Gulf of 
Georgia, and the purple lights upon the 
distant mountains all behind, and went on 
in the gray twilight and the night. 

May 13. (Sunday morning.) We ar- 
rived at Port Townsend early in the morn- 



TACOMA. 207 

ing and prepared to leave the steamer, as 
we had here completed our voyage, prefer- 
ring to return to Tacoma upon the local 
boat, thence by rail to Portland, rather 
than encounter the delays which we might 
experience on the bar at the mouth of the 
Columbia River. 

We spent the day at the hotel near the 
Sound, quietly resting from our voyage, 
and repacking our trunks, which had been 
practically closed to us for three weeks. 

May 14. We went on board The Star 
and took passage for Tacoma, making a 
short call at Seattle by the way. 

The beautiful mountain, which is the 
pride and glory of Seattle and Tacoma, 
veiled itself in thick white clouds as we 
went down between the islands of the 
Sound, whose waters seemed alive and 
throbbing still with the impellent forces of 
our recent storm. 

As we lost sight of the city of Seattle 
in the distance behind us and came near to 
the city of Tacoma, the mountain parted 
the heavy cloud and cast it away, standing 
before us free and peerless in its beauty. 
I took it as an omen, and henceforth shall 
know it only as '' Mount Tacoma." 



208 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 



MOUNT TACOMA. 

Tacoma, Tacoma ! who bade thee arise 

From the caverns of earth to thy throne in the skies ? 

Thy footstool the mountains, which round thee bend 

low, 
And cover then: heads with their mantles of snow ; 
Who clothed thee with ermine, to hide from our sight 
Thy birth-marks of fire, in the drear realms of night ? 
Who placed on thy forehead that mitre of ice ? 
On the shields of thy armor, who carved the device ? 
As in ages long past, shall the ages to come 
Roll their cycles above thee, and still thou be dumb ? 
Dost thou number the ages that over thee roll ? 
When the Heavens shall melt and depart like a scroll 
In the fullness of time, will the earth yawn below 
Thy vast solemn arches of crystal and snow ? 
And wilt thou, in thy season, as tides seek the sea, 
Sink to caverns abysmal, long waiting for thee ? 
O lovely Tacoma, thou standest alone ; 
Thy cold lips are silent, thy heart is a stone. 
It is not for mortals to ask the design 
Of Him who holds worlds in the balance of time. 
His Heavens are above thee, His earth lies below; 
His storms weave around thee thy garment of snow ; 
His sun forged thy armor and wrought on its shield 
A legend whose secret the ages have sealed. 

A. J. W. 

Tacoma, May 14, 1888. 



VII. 

CONCLUSION. 

Happy is the tourist who sees Alaska 
in its wild and grand simplicity. That it 
is destined to be a mine of wealth to our 
country, is conceded by all who have be- 
come acquainted with its vast resources. 
Its fisheries alone have already several 
times over repaid to our government the 
price of its purchase from Russia. Its 
mines of gold and other precious ores are 
inexhaustible; the mountains themselves 
are being "removed hence" from their 
foundations, and deposited as sands in the 
sea, in the process of yielding to man the 
gold which is found to pervade them. Im- 
mense forests of firs, pines, and cedars 
cover its vast areas, awaiting the enter- 
prise of our people to be converted into 
material which shall supply the demands 
of a commercial fleet upon the broad Pa- 
cific such as never existed for our Atlantic 
shores. Cities will spring up all along our 



2IO PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

Alaskan coast, and the land which pre- 
sents a primeval aspect to-day, will become 
worn and marked by traffic, and the at- 
tendant changes and embellishments which 
follow upon the footsteps of civilization, 
when the Alaska of to-day will cease to be. 
Those " who have eyes to see, and see 
not," may prefer the Alaska of the future 
to that of the present. Let such defer 
their journey to our Northwest until the 
later day, if they choose ; but to all who 
delight in the wild and rugged scenes of 
Nature, who love to listen to the sweet 
.and solemn voices which break upon the 
silences of her solitudes, I would say, de- 
lay not too long your tour to Alaska. If 
the comforts and conventionalities of a 
palace hotel have been necessary to the 
enjoyments of travel, try now the primitive 
accommodations which necessarily attend 
an extended tour in this region, and I 
promise you the pleasure you will experi- 
ence will counterbalance all inconven- 
iences. Besides, you will surely desire to 
repeat the journey later, when, perhaps, 
the luxury afforded by the coming cara- 
vansary which will doubtless be erected in 
Sitka at no very remote day, will com- 



CONCLUSION. 211 

pensate for all past privations, and be the 
more appreciated by the contrast. I ven- 
ture to predict, however, that the pleasure 
and satisfaction derived from the early- 
tour will outlast all that can follow in the 
wake of a greater civilization. 

A good field - glass is indispensable to 
a tourist's outfit, as are also rubber over- 
shoes, waterproof wrap, and an umbrella. 
Clothing, such as is worn upon ordinary 
winter travel in New England, with an 
extra shawl, will be quite sufficient to meet 
all exposures of the climate, and enable one 
to spend most of the time upon deck if 
desirable. 

In the preceding account of our tour in 
Alaska, I have inclined my ears to nature 
and simply *' told the tale as it was told 
to me." Some who will go there may re- 
turn with the impression that I have some- 
what exaggerated in my descriptions of 
what we saw. Many will no doubt declare 
that " the half has not been told to them " ; 
while an exceptional few will bring home 
with them little but the memory of the 
final score at euchre and the passing de- 
light of the last flirtation, having seen or 
heard naught of the wonderful revelations 



212 PICTURESQUE ALASKA. 

of Nature, I can only refer these last to 
the response of the artist Turner. When 
a lady to whom he was exhibiting one of 
his rarely beautiful delineations of the set- 
ting sun, remarked to him, ** I never saw 
a sunset look like that," he replied with 
a characteristic expletive : ** Don't you 
wish you could, madam ? " 



^tanbatD anti f)opiriar Stifiratp 2&oofe^ 

SELECTED FROM THE CATALOGUE OF 

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY. 



A Club of One. An Anonymous Volume, i6mo, $1.25. 

Brooks Adams. The Emancipation of Massachusetts, crown 
8vo, $1.50. 

John Adams and Abigail Adams. Familiar Letters of, 
during the Revolution, i2mo, $2.00. 

Oscar Fay Adams. Handbook of English Authors, i6mo, 
75 cents ; Handbook of American Authors, i6mo, 75 cents. 

Louis Agassiz. Methods of Study in Natural History, Illus- 
trated, i2mo, $1.50; Geological Sketches, Series I. and II., 
i2mo, each ^1.50; A Journey in Brazil, Illustrated, i2mo, 
$2.50; Life and Letters, edited by his wife, 2 vols. i2mo. 
$4.00; Life and Works, 6 vols. $10.00. 

Alexander Agassiz. Three Cruises of the Blake. 2 vols. 
8vo, $8.00. 

Anne A. Agge and Mary M. Brooks. Marblehead 
Sketches, 4to, $3.00. 

Elizabeth Akers. The Silver Bridge, and other Poems, i6mo!. 
$1.25. 

Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Story of a Bad Boy, Illustrated, 
i2mo, $1.25; Marjorie Daw and Other People, i2mo, $1.50; 
Prudence Palfrey, i2mo, $1.50; The Queen of Sheba, i2mo, 
$1.50; The Stillwater Tragedy, i2mo, $1.50; Poems, House- 

■ hold Edition, Illustrated, i2mo, $1.75; full gilt, $2.00; The 
above six vols. i2mo, uniform, $9.00; From Ponkapog to 
Pesth, i6mo, $1.25 ; Poems, Complete, Illustrated, Svo, $3.50 ; 
Mercedes, and Later Lyrics, cr. Svo, $1.25. 

Rev. A. V. G. Allen. Continuity of Christian Thought, i2mo, 
$2.00. 

American Commonwealths, Per volume, i6mo, $1.25. 
Virginia. By John Esten Cooke. 
Oregon. By William Barrows. 
Maryland. By Wm. Hand Browne. 
Kentucky. By N. S. Shaler. 
Michigan. By Hon. T. M. Cooley. 



e Houghton^ Alifflbi and ComJ>any^s 

Kansas. By Leverett W. Spring. 

California. By Josiah Royce. 

New York. By Ellis H. Roberts. 2 vols 

Connecticut. By Alexander Johnston. 

Missouri. By Lucien Carr. 

Indiana. By J. P. Dunn, Jr. 

Ohio. By Rufus Kinf^. 

[In Preparation.) 
Pennsylvania. By Hon. Wayne MacVeagh. 
New Jersey. By Austin Scott. 
American Men of Letters. Per vol., with Portrait, i6mo, 
^1.25. 

Washington Irving. By Charles Dudley Warner. 

Noah Webster. By Horace E. Scuader. 

Henry D. Thoreau. By Frank B. Sanborn. 

George Ripley. By O. B. Frothingham. ^ 

J. Fenimore Cooper. By Prof. T. R. Lounsbury. 

Margaret Fuller Ossoli. By T. W. Higginson. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson. By Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Edgar Allan Poe. By George E. Woodberry. 

Nathaniel Parker Willis. By H A. Beers. 

Benjamin Franklin. By John Bach McMaster. 

[Iti Preparation.) 
Nathaniel Hawthorne. By James Russell Lowell 
William Cullen Bryant. By John Bigelow. 

American Statesmen. Per vol., i6mo, $1.25. 
John Quincy Adams. By John T. Morse, Jr. 
Alexander Hamilton. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 
John C. Calhoun. By Dr. H. von Hoist. 
Andrew Jackson. By Prof. W. G. Sumner. 
John Randolph. By Henry Adams. 
James Monroe. By Pres. D. C. Oilman. 
Thomas Jefferson. By John T. Morse, Jr. 
Daniel Webster. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 
Albert Gallatin. By John Austin Stevens. 
James ISTadison. By Sydney Howard Gay. 
John Adams. By John T. Morse, Jr. 
John Marshall. By Allan B. Magruder. 



Standard and Popular Library Books. 3 

Samuel Adams. By J. K. Hosmer. 
Thomas H, Benton. By Theodore Roosevelt. 
Henry Clay. By Hon. Carl Schurz. 2 vols. 
Patrick Henry. By Moses Coit Tyler. 
Gouverneur Morris. By Theodore Roosevelt. 
Martin Van Buren. By Edwar-d M. Shepard. 

{In Preparation.) 
George Washington. By Henry Cabot Lodge. 2 vols, 
Martha Babcock Amory. Life of Copley, 8vo, $3.00. 
Hans Christian Andersen. Complete Works, 10 vols. i2mo, 

each $1.00. The set, $10.00. 
John Ashton. A Century of Ballads. Royal 8vo, ^7.50. 
Francis, Lord Bacon. Works, 15 vols. or. 8vo, $33.75 ; Pop- 

tilar Edition, with Portraits, 2 vols. or. 8vo, $5.00 ; Promus of 

Formularies and Elegancies, 8vo, $5.00; Life and Times of 

Bacon, 2 vols. or. 8vo, $5.00. 
Theodore Bacon. Life of Delia Bacon. 8vo, $2.00. 
L. H. Bailey, Jr. Talks Afield, Illustrated, i6mo, $1.00. 
M. M. Ballou. Due West, cr. 8vo, $1.50 ; Due South, $1.50; 

A Treasury of Thought, 8vo, $4.00; Pearls of Thought, i6mo, 

$1.25 ; Notable Thoughts about Women, cr. 8vo, $1.50. 
Henry A. Beers. The Thankless Muse. Poems. i6mo, $1.25. 
E. D. R. Bianciardi. At Home in Italy, i6mo, $1.25. 
William Henry Bishop. The House of a Merchant Prince, 

a Novel, i2mo, $1.50; Detmold, a Novel, i8mo, $1.25 ; Choy 

Susan, and other Stories, i6mo, $1.25 ; The Golden Justice, 

i6mo, $1.25. 
Bjornstjerne Bjornson. Novels. New Edition, 3 vols. 

i2mo; the set, $4.50; Bridal March, Captain Mansana, i6mo, 

each $1.00 ; Sigurd Slembe, a Drama, cr. 8vo, $1.50. 
William R. Bliss. Colonial Times on Buzzard's Bay. Cr. 

8vo, $2.00. 
Anne C. Lynch Botta. Handbook of Universal Literature. 

New Edition, i2mo, S2.00. 
British Poets. River dde Edition^ cr. 8vo, each $1.50; the 

set, 68 vols. $100.00. 
John Brown, A. B. John Bunyan. Illustrated. Svo, $2.50. 
John Brown, M. D. Spare Hours, 3 vols. i6mo, each $1.50. 



4 Houghton, Mifflin a?id Company s 

Robert Browning. Jocoseria, i6mo, $i.oo; cr. 8vo, $i.oo; 
Parleyings with Certain People of Importance in their Day, 
i6mo or cr. 8vo, $1.25. Works, Riverside Edition^ 6 vols. cr. 
8vo, ^10.00; Lyrics, Idyls, and Romances, i6mo, $1.00. 

Mrs. Browning. Romances, Lyrics, and Sonnets. i6mo, 
$1.00 

William Cullen Bryant. Translation of Homer, The Iliad, 
cr. Svo, $2.50; 2 vols, royal Svo, J^p.oo; cr. Svo, ^^4.00. The 
Odyssey, cr. Svo, $2.50 ; 2 vols, royal Svo, $9.00 ; cr. Svo, $4.00. 

Sara C. Bull. Life of Ole Bull. i2mo, $1.50. 

John Burroughs. Works, 7 vols. i6mo, each $1.50- 

Thomas Carlyle. Essays, with Portrait and Index, 4 vols. 
l2mo, ^7.50 ; Popular Editiott, 2 vols. l2mo, ^3.50. 

Alice and Phoebe Gary. Poems, Household Edition, Illus- 
trated, i2mo, $1.75 ; cr. Svo, full gilt, $2.00 ; Library Edition, 
including Memorial by Mary Clemmer, Portraits and 24 Illus- 
trations, Svo, $3.50; Early and Late Poems, i2mo, $1.50. 

Wm. Ellery Channing. Selections from Note-Books, $1.00. 

Francis J. Child (Editor). English and Scottish Popular 
Ballads. Eight Parts. (Parts I.-V. now ready.) 4to, each 
^5.00. Poems of Religious Sorrow, Comfort, Counsel, and 
Aspiration. i6mo, $1.25. 

Lydia Maria Child. Looking Toward Sunset, i2mo, ^2.50; 
Letters, with Biography by Whittier, i6mo, ^1.50. 

James Freeman Clarke. Ten Great Religions, Parts I. and 
II., i2mo, each $2.00 ; Common Sense in Religion, i2mo, $2.00 ; 
Memorial and Biographical Sketches, i2mo, $2.00. 

John Esten Cooke. My Lady Pokahontas, i6mo, $1.25. 

James Fenimore Cooper. Works, new Household Edition, 
Illustrated, 32 vols. i6mo, each $1.00; the set, $32.00; Fire- 
side Edition, Illustrated, 16 vols. i2mo, $20.00. 

Susan Fenimore Cooper. Rural Hours. i6mo. $1.25. 

Charles Egbert Craddock. In the Tennessee Mountains, 
i6mo, $1.25; Down the Ravine, Illustrated, $1.00; The 
Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains, i6mo, $1.25; In the 
Clouds, i6mo, $1.25 ; The Story of Keedon Bluffs, i6mo, $1.00; 
The Despot of Broomsedge Cove, i6mo, $1.25. 

C P. Cranch. Ariel and Caliban. i6mo, $1.25 ; The .^neid 
of Virgil. Translated by Cranch. Svo, $2.50. 

T. F. Crane. Italian Popular Tales, Svo, $2.50. 



Standard and Popular Library Books. 5 

F. Marion Crawford. To Leeward, i6mo, $1.25 ; A Roman 
Singer, i6mo, ^1.25; An American Politician, i6mo, $1.25; 
Paul Patoff, i2mo, $1.50. 

M. Creighton. The Papacy during the Reformation, 4 vols. 

8vo, $17.50. 
Catherine Floyd Dana. Our Phil and other Stories. i6mo5 

$1.25. 
Richard H. Dana. To Cuba and Back, i6mo, $1-25; Two 

Years Before the Mast, i2mo, $1.00. 
Margaret Deland, John Ward, Preacher. i2mo, $1.50; 

The Old Garden, i6mo, I1.25. 

G. W. and Emma De Long. Voyage of the Jeannette. 2 
vols. 8vo, $7.50; New One-Volume Edition, 8vo, $4.50. 

Thomas De Quincey. Works, 12 vols. i2mo, each ^1.50; 

the set, $18.00. 
Madame De Stael. Germany, i2mo, $2.50. 
Charles Dickens. Works, Illustrated Library Edition, with 

Dickens Dictionary, 30 vols. i2mo, each $1.50 ; the set, $45.00. 
J. Lewis Diman. The Theistic Argument, etc., cr. 8vo, $2.00 ; 

Orations and Essays, cr. 8vo, $2.50. 
Theodore A. Dodge. Patroclus and Penelope, Illustrated, 

8vo, $3.00. The Same. Outline Illustrations. Cr. 8vo, $1.25. 
E. P. Dole. Talks about Law. Cr, 8vo, $2.00; sheep, $2.50. 
George Eliot. The Spanish Gypsy, a Poem, i6mo, $1.00. 
George E. Ellis. The Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony 

of the Massachusetts Bay. 8vo, $3.50. 
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Works, Riverside Edition, 1 1 vols. 

each $1.75; the set, $19.25; ''Little Classic'' Edition, 11 vols. 

i8mo, each $1.25 ; Parnassus, Household Edition, i2mo, $1.75 ; 

Library Edition, 8vo, $4.00 ; Poems, Household Edition^ 

Portrait, i2mo, $1.75; Memoir, by J.Elliot Cabot, 2 vols. 

English Dramatists. Vols. 1-3, Marlowe's Works; Vols. 
4-11, Middleton's Works; Vols. 12-14, Marston's Works; 
Vols. 1.5, 16, Peele's Works; each vol. $3.00; Large-Paper 
Edition, each vol. $4.00. 

C. C. Everett. Poetry, Comedy, and Duty. Cr. 8vo, $1.50. 

Edgar Fawcett. A Hopeless Case, i8mo, $1.25 ; A Gentle- 
man of Leisure, $1.00 ; An Ambitious Woman, i2mo, $1.50. 

Fenelon. Adventures of Telemachus, i2mo, $2.25. 



6 Houghto7i, Mifflin and ComJ^anfs 

James T. Fields. Yesterdays with Authors, i2mo, $2.00; 8vo, 
Illustrated, $3.00 ; Underbrush, i8mo, $1.25 ; Ballads and other 
Verses, i6mo, $1.00 ; The Family Library of British Poetry, 
royal 8vo, $5.00 ; Memoirs and Correspondence, cr. 8vo, $2.00. 

John Fiske. Myths awd Mythmakers, i2mo, $2.00; Outlines 
of Cosmic Philosophy, 2 vols. 8vo, $6.00 ; The Unseen World, 
and other Essays, i2mo, $2.00; Excursions of an Evolutionist, 
i2mo, $2.00; The Destiny of Man, i6mo, $1.00; The Idea of 
God, i6mo, $1.00; Darwinism, and other Essays, New Edi- 
tion, enlarged, i2mo, $2.00; The Critical Period of American 
History, 1 783-1789, cr. 8vo, $2.00. 

Edward Fitzgerald. Works. 2 vols. 8vo, $10.00. 

O. B. Frothingham. Life of W. H. Channing. Cr. 8vo, $2.00. 

William H. Furness. Verses, i6mo, vellum, $1.25. 

Gentleman's Magazine Library. 14 vols. 8vo, each $2.50; 
Roxburgh, $3.50; Large-Paper Editioji, $6.00. I. Manners and 
Customs. II. Dialect, Proverbs, and Word-Lore. III. Pop- 
ular Superstitions and Traditions. IV. English Traditions 
and Foreign Customs. V., VI. Archaeology. VII., VIII. 
Romano-British Remains. {Last two styles sold only in sets.) 

John F. Genung. Tennyson's In Memoriam, cr. 8vo, $1.25. 

Washington Gladden. The Lord's Prayer, i6mo, $1.00; 
Applied Christianity, i6mo, $1.25. 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Faust, Part First, Trans- 
lated by C. T. Brooks, i6mo, $1.00 ; Faust, Translated by Bay- 
ard Taylor, cr. 8vo. $2.50 ; 2 vols, royal 8vo, I9.00 ; 2 vols. i2mo, 
$4.00; Correspondence with a Child, i2mo, $1.50; Wilhelm 
Meister, Translated by Carlyle, 2 vols. i2mo, $3.00. Life, by 
Lewes, together with the above five i2mo vols., the set, $9.00. 

Oliver Goldsmith. The Vicar of Wakefield, 24mo, $r.oo. 

Charles George Gordon. Diaries and Letters, 8vo, $2.00. 

George Zabriskie Gray. The Children's Crusade, i2mo, 
$1.50; Husband and Wife, i6mo, $1.00. 

G. W. Greene. Life of Nathanael Greene, 3 vols. 8vo, $12.00 ; 
Historical View of the American Revolution, cr. 8vo, $1.50; 
German Element in the War of American Independence, 
i2mo, $1.50. 

F. W. Gunsaulus. The Transfiguration of Christ. i6mo, 
$1.25. 

Parthenia A. Hague. A Blockaded Family. i6mo, $1.00. 



Standard and Popular Library Books. 7 

Anna Davis Hallowell. James and Lucretia Mott, $2.00. 

R. P. Hallowell. Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts, revised, 
$1.25; Thie Pioneer Quakers, i6mo, $1.00. 

Arthur Sherburne Hardy. But Yet a Woman, i6mo, J^i.25 ; 
The Wind of Destniy, i6mo, $1.25. 

Bret Harte. Works, 6 vols. cr. 8vo, each $2.00 ; Poems, 
Household Edition, Illustrated, i2mo, ^r.75 ; cr. 8vo, full gilt, 
$2.00 ; Ked-Line Edition, small 4to, $2.50 ; Cabinet Edition, 
$1.00; In the Carquinez Woods, i8mo, $1.00; Flip, and Found 
at Blazing Star, iSmo, $1.00; On the Frontier, iSmo, $1.00; 
By Shore and Sedge, iSmo, $1.00; Maruja, iSmo, $1.00; 
Snovv-Bound at Eagle's, iSmo, $1.00; The Queen of the Pirate 
Isle, Illustrated, small 4to, $1.50; A Millionaire, etc., iSmo, 
^i.oo; The Crusade of the Excelsior, i6mo, $1.25; A Phyllis 
of the Sierras, iSmo, $1.00; The Argonauts of North Liberty, 
iSmo, $1.00; Cressy, i6mo, $1.25. 

Nathaniel Haivthorne. Works, ''Little Classic " Edition, 
Illustrated, 25 vols. iSmo, each $r.oo; the set, $25.00; New 
Riverside Edition, Introductions by G. P. Lathrop, ii Etch- 
ings and Portrait, 12 vols. cr. Svo, each $2.00; Wayside Edi- 
tion, with Introductions, Etchings, etc., 24 vols. i2mo, $36.00; 
Fireside Editio7i, 6 vols. i2mo, $io.co; The Scarlet Letter, 
i2mo, $1.00. 

John Hay Pike County Ballads, i2mo, $1.50; Castilian 
Days, i6mo, $2.00. 

Caroline Hazard. Memoir of J. L. Diman. Cr, Svo, $2.00. 

Franklin H. Head, Shakespeare's Insomnia. i6mo, parch* 
ment paper, 75 cents. 

The Heart of the "Weed. Poems. i6mo, $1.00, 

Frederic H. Hedge, and Annis Lee Wister, Metrical 
Translations and Poems. i6mo, parchment cover, $1.00. 

S. E. Herrick, Some Heretics of Yesterday. Cr. Svo, $1.50. 

S. J. Higginson. A Princess of Java. i2mo, $1.50. 

George S. Hillard. Six Months in Italy. i2mo, $2.00. 

Nathaniel Holmes. The Authorship of Shakespeare. New 
Edition. 2 vols. $4.00 ; Realistic Idealism in Philosophy It- 
self, 2 vols. cr. Svo, ^^5.00. 

Oliver "Wendell Holmes. Poems, Household Edition, Illus- 
trated, i2mo, $1.75 ; cr. Svo, full gilt, $2.00 ; Illustrated Library 
Edition, Svo, $3.50; Handy-Volume Edition^ 2 vols. 24mo, 



8 Hoiighto7i^ Mifflin a?id Compa7ifs 

$2.50; The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, cr. 8vo, $2.00; 
Handy-Vohime Edition, 24010, $1.25; The Professor at the 
Breakfast-Table, cr. 8vo, ;^2.oo ; The Poet at the Breakfast- 
Table, cr. 8vo, ^2.00 ; Elsie Venner, cr. 8vo, $2.00 ; The Guar- 
dian Angel, cr, 8vo, $2.00; Medical Essays, cr, 8vo, $2.00; 
Pages from an Old Volume of Life, cr. 8vo, $2.00 ; John Lo- 
throp Motley, a Memoir, i6mo, $1,50; Illustrated Poems, 
8vo, ;?4.oo; A Mortal Antipathy, cr. 8vo, ^1.50; The Last 
Leaf, Illustrated, 4to, $10.00 ; Our Hundred Days in Europe, 
cr. 8vo, $1.50; Before the Curfew, i6mo, $1.00. 

James K. Hosmer. Young Sir Henry Vane. 8vo, $4.00. 

Blanche "Willis Howard. One Summer, Illustrated, i2mo, 
$1.25; One Year Abroad, iSmo, $1.25. 

"William D. Howells. Venetian Life, i2mo, $1,50; Italian 
Journeys, i2mo, ^1,50; Their Wedding Journey, Illustrated, 
i2mo, I1.50; i8mo, |i.oo; Suburban Sketches, Illustrated, 
i2mo, $1.50; A Chance Acquaintance, Illustrated, i2mo, 
$1.50; i8mo, ^i.oo; A Foregone Conclusion, i2mo, $1.50; 
The Lady of the Aroostook, i2mo, ^1.50; The Undiscovered 
Country, i2mo, ^1.50. 

Thomas Hughes. Tom Brown's School-Days at Rugby, 
i6mo, $1.00 ; Tom Brown at Oxford, i6mo, $1.25 ; The Man- 
liness of Christ, i6mo, $1.00; paper, 25 cents. 

"William Morris Hunt. Talks on Art, 2 Series, each $1.00. 

"William H. Hurlbert. Ireland nnder Coercion. 8vo, gilt 
top, $1.75. 

Henry James. A Passionate Pilgrim, and other Tales, i2mo, 
$2.00 ; Transatlantic Sketches, i2mo, $2.00 ; Roderick Hud- 
son, i2mo, $2.00 ; The American, i2mo, $2,00 ; Watch and 
Ward, i8mo, $1,25; The Europeans, i2mo, $1.50; Confidence, 
i2mo, $1.50; The Portrait of a Lady, i2mo, $2.00. 

Anna Jameson, Writings upon Art Subjects. New Edition, 
ID vols. i6mo, the set, $12.50. 

Sarah Orne Jewett. Deephaven, i8mo, $1.25 ; Old Friends 
and New, iSmo, $1.25 ; Country By-Ways, i8mo, $1.25 ; Play- 
Days, Stories for Children, square i6mo, $1.50; The Mate of 
the Daylight, iSmo, $1.25 ; A Country Doctor, i6mo, $1.25 ; 
A Marsh Island, i6mo, $1.25 ; A White Heron, i8mo, $1.25; 
The King of Folly Island, i6mo, $1.25. 

Henry Johnson. A Midsommer Nights Dreame. 8vo, $1.00. 

Rossiter Johnson. Little Classics, 18 vols. i8mo, each $1.00. 



Standard and Popular Library Books. 9 

Samuel Johnson. Oriental Religions : India, 8vo, %^.oo ; 

• China, 8vo, $500; Persia, 8vo, $5.00; Lectures, Essays, and 
Sermons, cr. 8vo, $1.75. 

Charles C. Jones, Jr. History of Georgia, 2 vols. 8vo, $10.00 ; 
Negro Myths from the Georgia Coast, i6mo, $1.00. 

W. Montagu Kerr. The Far Interior. 2 vols. 8vo, $9.00. 

Omar Khayyam. Rubaiyat, R'ed-Lifie Edition, square i6mo, 
$1.00 ; the same, with 56 Illustrations by Vedder, folio, $25.00;' 
The Same, Phototype Edition, 4to, $12.50. 

T. Starr King. Christianity and Humanity, with Portrait. 
i2mo, $1.50; Substance and Show, i2mo, $1.50. 

Charles and Mary Lamb. Tales from Shakespeare. Handy- 
Volume Edition, 24mo, $1.00. 

Rodolfo Lanciani. Ancient Rome in the Light of Recent 
Discoveries, i vol. 8vo, $6.00. 

Henry Lansdell. Russian Central Asia. 2 vols. $10.00. 

Lucy Larcom. Poems, i6mo, $1.25 ; An Idyl of Work, i6mo, 
$1.25 ; Wild Roses of Cape Ann, and other Poems, i6mo, 
$1.25 ; Breathings of the Better Life, iSmo, $1.25 ; Poems, 
Household Edition, Illustrated, i2mo, $1.75; full gilt, $2.00 j 
Beckonings for Every Day, i6mo, $1.00. 

George Parsons Lathrop. A Study of Hawthorne, i8mo, 
$1.25. 

"Wm. LaTvrence. Life of Amos A. Lawrence, i2mo, $1.50. 

Emma Lazarus. Poems. 2 vols. i6mo, $2.50. 

Henry C. Lea. Sacerdotal Celibacy, 8vo, $4.50. 

Sophia and Harriet Lee. Canterbury Tales. New Edition. 
3 vols. i2mo, $3.75. 

Charles G. Leland. The Gypsies, cr. 8vo, $2.00 ; Algonquin 
Legends of New England, cr. 8vo, $2.00. 

George Henry Lewes. The Story of Goethe's Life, Portrait, 
i2mo, $1.50; Problems of Life and Mind, 5 vols. Svo, $14.00. 

A. Parlett Lloyd. The Law of Divorce, $2.00 ; sheep, $2.50 ; 
Building and Building Contracts, $4.50 ; sheep, $5.00. 

J. G. Lockhart. Life of Sir W. Scott, 3 vols. i2mo, $4.50. 

Henry Cabot Lodge. Studies in History, cr. Svo, $1.50. 

Hsniry "Wadsworth Longfello-w. Complete Poetical and 
Prose Works, Riverside Edition, 11 vols. cr. 8vo, $16.50; Po- 
etical Viox\<.?,, Riverside Edition, 6 vols. cr. Svo, $9.00; Catn- 
bridge Edition, 4 vols. i2mo, $7.00 ; Poems, Octavo Edition^ 
Portrait and 300 Illustrations, $7.50; Household Edition, Illus- 



lo Houghton, Miffli7i a?id CoDipanys 

trated, i2mo, $1.75; cr. 8vo, full gilt, $2.00; Red-Line Edition^ 
Portrait and 12 Illustrations, small 4to, $2.50; Cabijiet Edition, 
$1.00 ; Library Edition, Portrait and 32 Illustrations, 8vo, $3.50; 
Christus, Household Edition, $1.75; cr. 8vo, full gilt, 32.00; 
Cabinet Edition, $1.00; Prose Works, Riverside Edition, 2 
vols. cr. Svo, $3.00 ; Hyperion, i6mo, $1.50 ; Kavanagh, i6mo, 
$1.50; Outre-Mer, i6mo, $1.50; In the Harbor, i6mo, $1.00; 
Michael Angelo : a Drama, Illustrated, folio, $5.00 ; Twenty 
Poems, Illustrated, small 4to, $2.50 ; Translation of the Divina 
Commedia of Dante, Riverside Edition, 3 vols. cr. Svo, $-1.50 ; 
I vol. cr. Svo, $2.50 ; 3 vols, royal Svo, $13.50 ; cr. Svo, $4.50 ; 
Poets and Poetry of Europe, royal Svo, $5.00; Poems of 
Places, 31 vols., each $1.00; the set, $25.00. 

James Russell Lo"well. Poems, Red-Line Edition, Portrait, 
Illustrated, small 4to, $2.50 ; Honsehold Edition, Illustrated, 
i2mo, $1.75 ; cr. Svo, full gilt, $2.00 ; Library Edition, Portrait 
and 32 Illustrations, Svo, $3.50 ; Cabifiet Edition, $1.00 ; Fire- 
side Travels, i2mo, $1.50 ; Among my Books, Series I. and II. 
i2mo, each $2.00 ; My Study Windows, i2mo, $2.00 ; Democ- 
racy and other Addresses, i6mo, $1.25; Heartsease and Rue, 
i6mo, $1.25 ; Political Essays, i2mo, $1.50. 

Percival Lo-well. The Soul of the Far East. i6mo, $1.25. 

Thomas Babington Macaulay. Complete Works, 16 vols. 
i2nio, $20.00; 8 vols. i2mo, $10.00. 

Mrs. Madison. Memoirs and Letters of Dolly Madison, 
i6mo, $1.25. 

Clements R. Markham. The Fighting Veres, Svo, $4 00. 

Harriet Martineau. Autobiography, New Edition, 2 vols. 
i2mo, $4.00; Household Education, iSmo, $1.25. 

D. R. McAnally, Jr. Irish Wonders, i2mo, $2.00. 

H. B. McClellan. The Life and Campaigns of Maj.-Gen. 
J. E. B. Stuart. With Portrait and Maps, Svo, $3.00. 

G. W. Melville. In the Lena Delta, Maps and Illustrations, 
Svo, $2.50. 

T. C. Mendenhall. A Century of Electricity. i6mo, $(.25. 

©■wen Meredith. Poems, Household Edition, Illustrated, 
i2mo, $1.75; cr. Svo, full gilt, $2.00; Library Edition, Por- 
trait and 32 Illustrations, Svo, $3.50; Lucile, Red- Line Edi- 
tion, S Illustrations, small 4to, $2.50 ; Cabinet Edition, 8 Illus- 
trations, $1.00. 



standard a?id Popular Library Books. ii 

Olive Thorne Miller. Bird- Ways, i6mo, $1.25 ; In Nesting 
Time, i6mo, $1.25. 

John Milton. Paradise Lost. Handy- Vohttne Edition. 24mo, 
$1.00. Riverside Classic Edition, i6mo. Illustrated, $1.00. 

F. A. Mitchel. Ormsby Macknight Mitchel, cr. 8vo, $2.00. 

S. Weir Mitchell. In War Time, i6mo, $1.25; Roland 
Blake, i6mo, ^1.25 ; A Masque, and other Poems, 8vo, $1.50. 

J. W. Mollett. Illustrated Dictionary of Words used in Art 
and Archaeology, small 4to, $5.00. 

Montaigne. Complete Works, Portrait, 4 vols. i2mo, ^7.50. 

Lucy Gibbons Morse. The Chezzles. 8vo, $1.50. 

William Mountford. Euthanasy, i2mo, $2.00. 

T. Mozley. Reminiscences of Oriel College, etc., 2 vols. i6mo, 
$3.00. 

Elisha Mulford. The Nation, Svo, ^2.50; The Republic of 
God, Svo, $2.00. 

T. T. Munger. On the Threshold, i6mo, $1.00 ; The Freedom 
of Faith, i6mo, $1.50 ; Lamps and Paths, i6mo, ^i.cxd ; The 
Appeal to Life, i6mo, ^1.50. 

J. A. W. Neander. History of the Christian Religion and 
Church, with Index volume, 6 vols. Svo, $20.00 ; Index, $3.00. 

Joseph Neilson. Memories of Rufus Choate, Svo, $5.00. 

Charles Eliot Norton. Notes of Travel in Italy, i6mo, $1.25 ; 
Translation of Dante's New Life, royal Svo, $3.00. 

M. O. W. Oliphant and T. B. Aldrich. The Second Son, 
cr. Svo, $1.50. 

Catherine Owen. Ten Dollars Enough, i6mo, $1.00; Gen- 
tle Breadwinners, i6mo, $1.00; Molly Bishop's Family, i6mo, 
51.CO, 

Qc. H. Palmer. Trans, of Homer's Odyssey, 1-12, Svo, $2.50. 

Leighton Parks. His Star in the East. Cr. Svo, $1.50. 

James Parton. Life of Benjamin Franklin, 2 vols. Svo, $5.00 ; 
Life of Thomas Jefferson, Svo, $2.50 ; Life of Aaron Burr, 
2 vols. Svo, $5.00 ; Life of Andrew Jackson, 3 vols. Svo, $7.50 ; 
Life of Horace Greeley, Svo, $2.50 ; General Butler in New 
Orleans, Svo, $2.50 ; Humorous Poetry of the English Lan- 
guage, i2mo, $1.75; full gilt, $2.00; Famous Americans of 
Recent Times, Svo, $2.50 ; Life of Voltaire, 2 vols. Svo, $6.00; 
The French Parnassus, i2mo, $1.75; crown Svo, ^3.50 ; Cap* 
tains of Industry, i6mo, $1.25. 



12 Houghtoji, Miffli7i and Company s 

Blaise Pascal. Thoughts, i2mo, $2.25; Letters, i2mo, ^2.25. 
James Phelan. History of Tennessee, cr. 8vo, ^2.00. 
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. The Gates Ajar, i6mo, $1.50 ; 
Beyond the Gates, i6mo, $1.25; Men, Women, and Ghosts, 
i6mo, $1.50; Hedged In, i6mo, $1.50; The Silent Partner, 
i6mo, $1.50; The Story of Avis, i6mo, $1.50 ; Sealed Orders, 
and other Stories, i6mo, $1.50; Friends: A Duet, i6mo, 
$1.25 ; Doctor Zay, i6mo, $1.25 ; Songs of the Silent World, 
i6mo, gilt top, $1.25 ; An Old Maid's Paradise, and Burglars in 
Paradise, i6mo, $1.25; The Madonna of the Tubs, cr. 8vo, Il- 
lustrated, ^1.50; Jack the Fisherman, sq. i2mo, 50 cents; 
The Gates Between, i6mo, $1.25. 
Phillips Exeter Lectures: Delivered before the Students of 
Phillips Exeter Academy, 1885-6. By E. E. Hale, Phillips 
Brooks, Presidents McCosh, Porter, and others. ^1.50. 
Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt. Selected Poems, i6mo, $1.50. 
Carl Ploetz. Epitome of Universal History, i2mo, $3.00. 
Antonin Lefevre Pontalis. The Life of John DeWitt, 

Grand Pensionary of Holland, 2 vols. 8vo, $9.00. 
Wm. F. Poole and Wm. I. Fletcher. An Index to Periodical 
Literature. First Supplement, 1882-1887. Royal 8vo, ^8.00. 
Margaret J. Preston. Colonial Ballads, i6mo, ^1.25. 
Adelaide A. Procter. Poems, Cabinet Edition, $1.00; Red- 

Line Edition, small 4to, ^2.50. 
Progressive Orthodoxy. i6mo, $1.00. 
J. P. Quincy. The Peckster Professorship, i6mo, $1.25. 
Agnes Repplier. Books and Men, i6mo, $1.25. 
C. F. Richardson. Primer of American Literature, i8mo,$0 3o 
Riverside Aldine Series. Each volume, i6mo, $1.00 First 
edition, $1.50. I. Marjorie Daw, etc., by T. B. Aldrich- 
2. My Summer in a Garden, by C. D. Warner; 3. Fireside 
Travels, by J. R. Lowell ; 4. The Luck of Roaring Camp etc 
by Bret Harte ; 5, 6. Venetian Life, 2 vols., by W. D. How- 
ells ; 7. Wake Robin, by John Burroughs ; 8, 9. The Biglow 
Papers, 2 vols., by J. R. Lowell; id. Backlog Studies by C 
D. Warner. 

Henry Crabb Robinson. Diary, Reminiscences, etc., cr. 8vo 

$2.50. * 

John C. Ropes. The First Napoleon, with Maps, cr. 8vo $2 00 
^""^^^^oyoe. Religious Aspect of Philosophy, i2mo, $2.00- 
The Feud of Oakfield Creek, i6mo, ^j.25. 



standard and Popular Library Books. 13 

John Godfrey Saxe. Poems, Red-Line Edition, Illustrated, 
small 4to, $2.50; Cabinet Edition, $1.00; Household Edition, 

Illustrated, i2mo, $1-75 J ^^'1 gi^^' ^''' ^^°' ^^•°°- 
Sir Walter Scott. Waverley Novels, Illustrated Library 
Edition, 25 vols. i2mo, each $1.00 ; the set, $25.00 ; Tales of a 
Grandfather, 3 vols. i2mo, M-50 ; Poems, Red- Line Edition, 
Illustrated, small 4to, $2.50 ; Cabinet Edition, %\.oo. 
Horace E. Scudder. Men and Letters, i2mo, $1.25 ; Dwell- 
ers in Five-Sisters' Court, i6mo, $1.25; Stories and Ro- 
mances, i6mo, $1.25. 
W. H. Seward. Works, 5 vols. 8vo, $15.00; Diplomatic His- 
tory of the Civil War, 8vo, $3.00. 
John Campbell Shairp. Culture and Religion, i6mo, $1.25 ; 
Poetic Interpretation of Nature, i6mo, $1.25 ; Studies in Po- 
etry and Philosophy, i6mo, $1.50; Aspects of Poetry, i6mo, 
$1.50. 
"William Shakespeare. Works, edited by R. G. White, Pop- 
ular Edition, 3 vols. cr. 8vo, $7.50 ; Riverside Edition, 6 vo\s. 
cr. Svo, $10.00. 
A. P. Sinnett. Esoteric Buddhism, i6mo, $1.25; The Occult 

World, i6mo, $1.25. 
E. R. Sill. Poems, i6mo, parchment paper, $1.00. 
M. C. D. Silsbee. A Half Century in Salem. i6mo, $1.00. 
Dr. William Smith. Bible Dictionary, American Edition, 4 

vols. Svo, $20.00. 
Edmund Clarence Stedman. Poems, Farringford Edition, 
Portrait, i6mo, $2.00; Household Edition, Illustrated, i2mo, 
$1.75; full gilt, cr. Svo, $2.00; Victorian Poets, i2mo, $2.25; 
Poets of America, i2mo, $2.25. The set, 3 vols., uniform, 
i2mo, $6.00 ; Edgar Allan Poe, an Essay, vellum, iSmo, $1.00. 
Stuart Sterne. Beyond the Shadow, and other Poems, iSmo, 

$1.00; Angelo, iSmo, $1.00; Giorgio, iSmo, $1.00. 
W. J. Stillman. On the Track of Ulysses, royal Svo, $4.00. 
W. W. Story. Poems, 2 vols. i6mo, $2.50; Fiammetta: A 

Novel, i6mo, $1.25. Roba di Roma, 2 vols. i6mo, $2.50. 
Harriet Beecher Stowe. Novels and Stories, 10 vols. i2mo, 
uniform, each $1.50; A Dog's Mission. Little Pussy Wil- 
low, Queer Little People, Illustrated, small 4to, each $1.25; 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, 100 Illustrations, Svo, $3.00 ; Library 
Edition, Illustrated, i2mo, $2.00 ; Popular Edition, itmo, 
$1.00. 



14 Houghto?t^ Mifflin and Companfs 

Jonathan Swift. Works, Edition de Luxe, 19 vols. 8vo, the 
set, $76.00. 

T. P. Taswell-Langmead. English Constitutional History. 
New Edition, revised, 8vo, $7.50. 

Bayard Taylor. Poetical Works, Household Edition, i2mo, 
5^1.75; cr. 8vo, full gilt, $2.00; Melodies of Verse, iSmo, vel- 
lum, $1.00; Life and Letters, 2 vols. i2mo, $4.00; Dramatic Po- 
ems, i2mo, $2.00; Household Edition, i2mo, $1.75; Life and 
Poetical Works, 6 vols, uniform. Including Life, 2 vols. ; Faust, 
2 vols. ; Poems, i vol. ; Dramatic Poems, 1 vol. The set, cr. 
Svo, $12.00. 

Alfred Tennyson. Poems, Household Edition, Portrait and 
Illustrations, i2mo, $1.75; full gilt, cr. Svo, $2.00; Illus- 
trated Crown Edition, 2 vols. Svo, $5.00 ; Library Edition, 
Portrait and 60 Illustrations, Svo, $3.50 ; Red- Line Edition, 
Portrait and Illustrations, small 4to, $2.50 ; Cabinet Edition, 
$\ .00 ; Complete Works, Riverside Edition, 6 vols. cr. Svo, $6.00. 

Octave Thanet. Knitters in the Sun, i6mo, $1 25. 

Celia Thaxter. Among the Isles of Shoals, iSmo, $1.25 ; 
Poems, small 4to, $1.50; Drift- Weed, iSmo, $1.50; Poems 
for Children, Illustrated, small 4to, $1.50 ; The Cruise of the 
Mystery, Poems, i6mo, $1.00. 

lidith M. Thomas. A New Year's Masque, and other Poems, 
i6mo, $1.50; The Round Year, i6mo, $1.25 ; Lyrics and Son- 
nets, i6mo, $1.25. 

Joseph P. Thompson. American Comments on European 
Questions, Svo, $3.00. 

S. Millett Thompson. History of the 13th New Hampshire 
Regiment, i vol. Svo, $4.50 net. 

Henry D. Thoreau. Works, 10 vols. i2mo, each $1.50; the 
set, Si 5.00. 

George Ticknor. History of Spanish Literature, 3 vols. Svo, 
$10.00; Life, Letters, and Journals, Portraits, 2 vols. i2mo, 
$4.00. 

Bradford Torrey. Birds in the Bush, i6mo, $1.25. 

Sophiis Tromholt. Under the Rays of the Aurora Borealis, 
Illustrated, 2 vols. $7.50. 

Herbert Tuttle. History of Prussia. Vol. T. To the Ac- 
cession of Frederic the Great. Vols. II. and HI. Under 
Frederic the Great. Cr. Svo, per vol. $2.25. 



Standard and Popular Library Books. 15 

Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer. H. H. Richardson and 
his Works, 4to, $20.00 net. 

Jones Very. Essays and Poems, cr. 8vo, $2.00. 

E. D. Walker. Reincarnation, a Study of Forgotten Truth, 
i6mo, $1.50. 

Annie "Wall. Sordello's Story, retold in Prose, i6mo, $1.00. 

Charles Dudley Warner. My Summer in a Garden, River- 
side Aldine Edition, i6mo, $1.00; Illustrated Edition, square 
i6mo, $1.50; Saunterings, i8mo, $1.25; Backlog Studies, 
Illustrated, square i6mo, $1.50; Riverside Aldine Edition^ 
i6mo, $1.00; Baddeck, and that Sort of Thing, i8mo, $1.00; 
My Winter on the Nile, cr. 8vo, $2.00 ; In the Levant, cr. 8vo, 
$2.00; Being a Boy, Illustrated, square i6mo, $1.25; In the 
Wilderness, i8mo, 75 cents; A Roundabout Journey, i2mo, 
$1.50; On Horseback, and Mexican Notes, i6mo, $1.25. 

William F. Warren, LL. D, Paradise Found, cr. 8vo, $2.00. 

William A. Wheeler. Dictionary of Noted Names of Fie 
tion, i2mo, $2.00. 

Edwin P. Whipple. Essays, 6 vols. cr. 8vo, each $1.50. 

Margaret E. White. After Noontide, i vol. i6mo, gilt top, 
$1.00. 

Richard Grant White. Every-Day English, i2mo, $2.00; 
Words and their Uses, i2mo, I2.00 ; England W'ithout and 
Within, i2mo, $2,00; The Fate of Mansfield Humphreys, 
i6mo, $1.25 ; Studies in Shakespeare, i2mo, ^1.75. 

Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney. Stories, 13 vols. T2mo, each $1.50; 
Mother Goose for Grown Folks, i2mo, $1.50; Pansies, i6mo, 
I1.25; Daffodils, i6mo, $1.25; Just How, i6mo, $1.00; Holy 
Tides, i6mo, 75 cents; Bird-Talk, sq. i2mo, $1.00. 

John Greenleaf Whittier. Poems, Household Edition, Illus- 
trated, i2mo, $1.75 ; full gilt, cr. 8vo, $2.00; Ca7nbridge Edi- 
tion, Portrait, 3 vols. i2mo, $5.25 ; Red-Line Edition, Por- 
trait, Illustrated, small 4to, I2.50 ; Cabinet Editioji, $\. 00 'y 
Library Edition, Portrait, 32 Illustrations, 8vo, $3.50 ; Poet- 
ical and Prose Works, new Riverside Edition, with Notes by 
Mr. Whittier, and 5 Portraits, 4 vols, of Poetry, 3 vols, of 
Prose, crown 8vo, the set, $10.50; Snow-Bound, i6mo, $1.00; 
The Bay of Seven Islands, Portrait, i6mo, $1.00; John W'ool- 
man's Journal, Introduction by Whittier, $1.50; Child Life in 
Poetry, selected by Whittier, Illustrated, i2mo, $2.00; Child 



1 6 Houghton^ Mifflin and Company. 

Life in Prose, i2mo, $2.00; Songs of Three Centuries, se- 
lected by Whittier : Household Edition^ Illustrated, i2mo, 
^1.75; full gilt, cr. 8vo, $2.00; Library Edition, 32 Illustra- 
tions, 8vo, $3.50; Text and Verse, i8mo, 75 cents ; Poems of 
Nature, 4to, Illustrated, $6.00 ; St. Gregory's Guest, etc., 
i6mo, vellum, $1.00. 

Kate Douglas Wiggin. The Birds* Christmas Carol. Sq. 
i2mo, boards, 50 cents. 

Woodro-w "Wilson. Congressional Government, i6mo, $1.25. 

J. A. "Wilstach. Translation of Virgil's Works, 2 vols. cr. Svo, 
^5.00 ; Translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, 2 vols. cr. 
Svo, $5.00. 

Justin Winsor. Reader's Handbook of American Revolu- 
tion, i6mo, ^1.25 ; Narrative and Critical History of America. 
With Biographical and Descriptive Essays on its Historical 
Sources and Authorities. Profusely illustrated with Portraits, 
Maps, Fac-similes, etc. In eight royal octavo volumes. Each 
volume, $5.50 ; sheep, $6.50 ; half morocco, $7.50. [Sold only 
by subscription for the entire set. ) 

^W. B. Wright. Ancient Cities from the Dawn to the Day- 
light, i6mo, $1.25 ; The World to Come, i6mo, $1.25. 



